“This one has a eucalyptus flavour,” Dale Chapman says, passing a glass tube of powder around a group of bush food enthusiasts in her new venue on the Sunshine Coast.
“Are you enjoying those flavours and smells, aren’t they great?” she says shaking a jar of ground spices onto a plate.
Lemon myrtle is a favourite and can be picked straight from the shrub for immediate use, she says.
At her new retail store, Dale also sells ready-to-use dried lemon myrtle for cooking, making biscuits, soaps or a cup of tea.
The Kooma Yuwaalaraay woman’s vision has always been to share Aboriginal culture with the wider community. And through her new shop at Forest Glen she is doing just that. Its shelves are stocked with native produce, sourced from growers across the country.
Lemon myrtle biscuits are popular. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
“A lot of people are overwhelmed at what bush food can do, and how good it does taste,” she says.
“People [these days] embrace bush foods a lot more and Aboriginal culture. And that's the whole thing, I like to break down the barriers.
At her new shopfront and café, Dale brings people of various backgrounds together around a table, to share food and start conversations.
“People say ‘Oh, I remember that smell from when I was a kid’ and it starts to evoke all these wonderful memories of the Australian bush, their childhood, and my childhood.”
Dale was born in the bush, on the Balonne River at Dirranbandi, west of Brisbane to an Indigenous father and non-Indigenous mother. Family bonds remain important to Dale, perhaps because she endured many changes growing up in 1960’s outback Queensland.
Dale Chapman, with her mother Valda Scott. Source: Supplied
“I was in 13 schools before the end of grade seven. So every six months we moved, and that was not to be taken.”
Dale is referring to the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families, as a result of various government policies between 1910-1970. The children removed under these policies are known as the Stolen Generations.
As a drover her father was often away and as a four-year-old Dale began experimenting with food, under her mother Valda Scott’s watchful eye.
“My mother is the rock and she made sure that we had consistency and stability. She is the key to my success, my mum. She's the one who taught me how to cook.”
After finishing school Dale took an apprenticeship in Brisbane, at a Greek club.
Dale Chapman is a qualified, award winning chef. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
“The Greek woman there made all this authentic Greek food, and I just loved it.”
Dale went on to complete her chef’s training and work at some of south east Queensland’s top restaurants before striking out on her own 20 years ago.
Over time, she has established relationships with Aboriginal growers, and would like to see Aboriginal people profiting at every stage of the supply chain.
Her Brisbane business supplied raw bush foods to restaurateurs, caterers and food manufacturers wishing to use native Australian ingredients.
But when COVID-19 hit, and outlets closed due to coronavirus restrictions, orders slowed to a trickle.
“I went into a slump. I sort of got depressed,” Dale says.
“Then I said to myself: ‘you have to get onto IBA, Indigenous Business Australia.”
As part of its relief program, IBA did a Business Impact Assessment and Dale later qualified for a Loan and Grant package.
Dale Chapman with IBA's Frank Lowah. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
The capital injection allowed Dale to stabilise the business, rent a new shopfront, and expand online.
“With her new webinar series that's developing really well she's just going to touch new customers and hit it hard,” says Frank Lowah, IBA’s Business Development Relationship Manager.
Dale has started running cooking classes and seminars online.
“My first webinar at home, I had 12,000 viewers. And I am also offering short cooking classes on the site,” Dale says.
Australian bush food remains her culinary passion and main business focus.
“We are bringing out a whole new range of bush foods, with more herbs and fruit coming on the market. And that's due to the influx of Indigenous people growing bush foods.”
Dale makes a pasta salad including bush food flavours. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
She also hopes the shopfront will become a hub for local artisans.
“The platforms I want to build are for Indigenous artists, who don’t have a platform. I have weavers, artists, and nutritionists and they will all come in and run programs.
“The more people I have coming through the door, whether it's to do my workshop or whether it's to do theirs, everyone wins.”
