“These beautiful leaves are really good for adding flavours to any of your dishes,” says Kitana Mansell as she guides us through the sun-dappled bush, brushing the leaves of (what I now know to be) the kunzea ambigua with her fingertips. “At Palawa Kipli, we like to mix it in with some native honey and add it with wallaby and mutton birds—we’ll just put these leaves on the coals and let it smoke through.”
Strolling through the Tasmanian bush with Mansell, a proud Palawa woman equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of all that is alive here, is like clambering inside a recipe book. Every plant she passes and every leaf she touches has myriad uses and layers of cultural significance.
There’s kangaroo apple, sheoak, strawberry pine, bower spinach, warrigal greens and so much more. All of it has a purpose, a meaning and an ancient poetry beyond its worldly form. Tens of thousands of years of experimentation, innovation and delicate practice. This kunzea (tinputina in Palawa language), for example, also has medicinal properties and is used by Tasmanian Aboriginal people for treating insect bites, skin irritations and various aches and pains. Mansell reckons the kunzea leaves and flowers makes a pretty delectable cup of tea, too.