Task 1:

Read the information below from Wikipedia and create an infographic to illustrate the information using Canva, Adobe Spark or any other tool you feel confident about using. These will be displayed around the room.

Though the land belonged to the whole tribe, the head men often spoke of it as theirs. The tribe in general owned the animals and birds on the ground, also roots and nests, but certain men and women owned different fruit or flower-trees and shrubs. For instance, a man could own a bonyi (Araucaria bidwilli) tree, and a woman a minti (Banksia amula), dulandella (Persoonia Sp.), midyim (Myrtus tenuifolia), or dakkabin (Xanthorrhoea aborea) tree. Then a man sometimes owned a portion of the river which was a good fishing spot, and no one else could fish there without his permission.^[6]

In Turrbal thought, the origins of the division of the sexes was attributed to two distinct birds. Menfolk all came from the billing (a small house bat). Women in turn had their descent from a wamankan (night-hawk). Given their mythic function, they could not be eaten, but capturing and killing them was permitted.^[7][a]

Hunting and gathering economy

The Turrbal exploited a large range of local species of animals and insects as part of their daily cuisine. These may be divided into sea- and riverine food, mainland victuals, and vegetables.

Vegetables and fruit

• The Turrbal gathered the pencil yam (tarm) from scrub borders, where it was often found almost a metre underground.^[18]

• Shoots from the crowns of both (the cabbage-tree palm (binkar)) and the king palm (pikki) served as vegetables.^[18]

• Blechnum serrulatum, a swamp fern called bangwal was a delicacy found in abundance, and generally consumed as a bread-like sidedish with fish or meat. a freshwater rush called (yimbun) was also harvested and once prepared, tasted like arrowroot.^[19]

• The Moreton Bay chesnut (mai), a root called bundal in Turrbal but more widely known as cunjevoi, Canavalia Obtusifolia beans, (yugam) and zamia nuts, though poisonous, were rendered edible by long soaking after the nuts were cracked. They were then roasted. Mai was pounded into a cake, (as were yugam beans, and bundal) and the word was later used to denote European bread.^[20] The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that "The seeds are eaten ... after cooking, as they are poisonous in the raw state. Some shipwrecked sailors in Northwest Australia were poisoned by them."^[21]

• geebung (dulandella) was relished and eaten raw, as were two varieties of wild fig, called respectively ngoa-nga and nyuta. white myrtle berries (midyim), located on sandy islands, like the dubbul berry, were much sought after as a sweet. dogwood gum (denna) was also highly prized.^[22]

• The breadfruit (winnam) was chewed and sucked.^[23]

Meats

• A variety of snakes were eaten: the carpet snake (kabul);^[b] the black snake (tumgu); brown snake (kuralbang) and death-adder (mulunkun).^[25]

• Aside from lizards, two varieties of goanna were hunted, the larger one being called giwar, while the smaller variety was named barra.^[25] The echidna (kagarr), tortoises (binkin), turtle (bowaiya)^[c] also formed part of their diet.^[27]

• Two varieties of kangaroo and possum were hunted, the groman or old man kangaroo and the murri,^[28] and the forest possum (kupi) and scrub possum (kappolla).^[29] Koalas (dumbripi) were also highly prized.^[30]

• The large black flying squirrel (panko), the small grey squirrel (chibur), the native cat (mibur) were eaten, as was the flying fox (gramman) while the dingo (mirri) was not part of their diet, the pups being taken in order to be domesticated.^{[31][citation needed]}

• Among the hunted avian species were the scrub turkey (wargun), the emu (ngurrun), the black swan (marutchi), native ducks (ngau'u), quail duwir, parrots (pillin) and cockatoos (kaiyar), the latter highly valued for the yellow topknots (billa billa) employed by men as a ceremonial adornment.^[32]

They often sought out goanna (magil) eggs, which could be found near ant nests in soft soil. The Turrbal would occasionally hunt marine animals, such as dugongs (yangon), porpoises (talobilla), tailor fish (punba), and mullet (andakal).^[33]