My Australia: Episode 06 - Part 1

Hello. I'm Vijay Khurana and welcome to My Australia, the show about people from overseas
having Australian experiences.
On today's program,
Akki finds out about a traditional way to get some lunch
The crab came up to my feet and tried to fight me or something.
Faye heads out for a night at the pub
and Michelle conquers one of her greatest fears.
These days, going out to get lunch usually means a trip to the shop, but Akki is keen
to find out how indigenous Australians lived before Europeans arrived and how they got
their food.
My name is Akimitsu Miyazato. People call me Akki.
I'm originally from Okinawa, Japan. It's a little island, southern Japan.
Born and raised there.
Grew up going to the beaches and play sports and I was there til 18.
I'm studying at James Cook University in Cairns in Far North Queensland.
I wanted to learn Ecotourism, you know,
Australia is a leading country for ecotourism field so ...
and Cairns has two world heritage which is the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest.
So this is the best place I chosen for study, for my study.
I think nature tells you a lot of things.
I reckon Aboriginal people had a traditional way to handle things like medicines or food
or their way of cooking or fishing or how to survive, or how to live for thousands of
years on this land.
That I really want to learn.
G'day mate. Hi.
How you going buddy?
Are you Brandon?
I'm Brandon, yep.
I'm Akki, pleased to meet you.
How you going Akki?
All right, so, today I heard you can teach me some cultural stuff.
Yep.
I'm really looking forward to that. So ...
I'm going to try and turn you into a hunter today.
Okay.
I'll give you a couple of spears.
Oh, nice.
Up here we call out spears kalka.
Kalka?
And we're mainly gonna chase fish and a couple of crabs today.
Easiest way to spear?
Yeah?
With your crabs and stuff they'll be usually around that big,
so when you walk up to them you slide your spear down through your hand
put it right on top, spear it like that.
Oh, okay.
Yep.
And stay nice and relaxed. Don't try to throw it too hard.
Okay.
Well done.
Not bad.
We're Kuku Yalanji people.
Kuku Yalanji, yep.
Kuku meaning language, Yalanji's the language spoken from Port Douglas through to Bloomfield
River.
All the language is related to the land.
This place here's Cooya Beach.
Kuyu kuyu means fish or fishing, very easy to catch yourself fish and crabs and stuff
here.
When you're walking around you'll see little tracks in the mud.
If you follow the track, get to the end, little shellfish at the end, this is a little cowrie
shell.
Oh wow.
So, if you look around, you'll see another track there,
one there ...
Most of us learn how to hunt like this since ...
Well, I've been hunting since I was a little boy so you just get better and better as you
go.
Just behind it.
See the wave in front of it?
I don't see anything.
See that there?
Little sting ray. See him coming along?
Oh, that's the one.
Yeah, have a shot.
Okay, all right.
Not good.
Nearly, nearly.
So Brandon, you know, I hardly see anything. It's really, really hard to catch.
How can you, how can you do that?
What I'm looking for is sort of a shadow in the water so if there's a shadow moving,
usually a fish or a sting ray or a crab..
Yeah.
If there's a wave you'll see it flash now and then and you'll spot the fish'll be in
front of the wave.
This fella here. This is your sea-slug.
Mouth up the front, that's what he eats with, got a couple of tentacles.
He'll pull himself along with them.
And it's getting longer and longer.
Yeah, he's stretching.
Yeah?
So this is your female sand crab.
Yeah?
Blue swimmers they call them, very nice eating meat.
I can see.
Oh you got it!
This is your ...
Shark.
No, it's your shovel-nosed ray.
What?
A shovel-nosed ray.
Oh, a ray. Yeah.
You can eat these, you take the meat off the side of the tail like a flathead.
Yeah.
Ho, did you see that? Fish were jumping.
Another crab.
Oh, it's in my ...
Stay still. If you stand still they'll usually sit beside your foot.
Oh, I just speared, but you know the crab came up to my feet and tried to fight me or
something.
Last couple times I could see something, some fish and crabs but he has too good eyes.
Some of them I can't see but I'm ready to shoot.
Oh, nice. Yeah.
So this is your blue-swimmer.
Yeah.
This'll be very nice eating this one,
More food for lunch.
Go up to him, nice and close, put your spear right down.
You're gonna have to chase him, he's gonna run.
Get right up close to it.
That's it. You got him.
Lift it up.
My lunch!
I got it. Nice.
These are your soldier crabs.
We call them soldier crabs because they move like they're in a big army, all together.
Wow.
They'll dig 'emselves into the ground and try to hide from ya.
What we're gonna do now is go for a little wander through the mangrove.
Okay.
Gonna look for some different shellfish.
Yeah.
Your periwinkles you'll find on the roots of the tree, where the roots come down into
the ground they'll be half way up.
Oh yeah.
Should be bright yellow, that fella there, so that's good.
Good yeah?
Very nice eating.
All right.
These are what we call ngurulan, or mud whelks.
Yep.
Big slug, has a greeny-bluey coloured fat on it, creamy coloured meat but very nice
to eat.
This fella down here, this is your mangrove mussel.
To check if they're good tap 'em on the sharp edge, nice and hard.
If it opens up ... like that it's no good. It'll be full of mud.
So we'll look for a better one.
Here in the mangroves, this is the safest place on the beach.
If you see crocodiles or sharks when you're out here hunting, walk in the mangrove.
Your crocs will come to here. They won't climb over all of that other stuff and try and get
ya in there.
They'll wait for you to come back out.
With sharks they can't go in reverse so once they get in here and they get stuck, they'll
die, they'll drown themselves.
Yeah.
So they don't come in here either.
With crocodiles up here we call them bilngkuma.
They're sacred to the Yalanji, Kuku Yalanji people.
We don't eat them and they don't eat us.
So this is what we got for today. We got mussels, crabs, a fish.
I can't wait to eat.
Here's your crab now.
All right.
This is your sand crab. I'll give you a taste of a nipper.
All right.
And these are quite nice.
Oh yeah.
Mmmm. So good.
So this is your mangrove mussel.
Yeah.
Yulba we call 'im.
So you pour a little bit in there, lift that piece up,
dip it in there and the straight in your mouth.
Push down, and dip there, put it in my mouth.
Mmmm, that's really good.
You know I have so much things that I learn, you know, all about his culture and his stories
from his ancestors.
He has a lot of knowledge and I think his stories was passed on from his father and
his grandfather and his ancestors.
And he knows all about this place and beaches and also his eyes. He can see everything pretty
much.
It was great.
When I, you know, spear the crab, I was really happy about that.
I could get one crab. That's the highlight of the day.
My lunch!
Wow, I learned something there. If a crocodile is coming, run into the mangroves.
Now I love skiing but one of the best things about a skiing holiday is going out to the
pub after a day on the slopes, and Faye is about to do just that.