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WOMEN IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE
The Indigenous Food Trace- ability System project was one of 16 successful applicants in round one of the Federal agricultural department’s Traceability Grants Program in 2020. All up, there
appropriate way, or followed the correct process or been trans- parent about what happens to the data once it’s been captured - we need to follow protocols,” says Natalie.
“Thirty years ago, farming women weren’t legally allowed to call themselves farmers, only farmers wives. We’ve come a long way,” says Natalie. The most re- cent government statistics esti- mate that women account for a third of people employed in agri- culture. However, just 1 per cent of agricultural workers overall identify as Indigenous. Natalie recognises that Indigen- ous women’s knowledge and skills are crucial for the bush foods industry. “With my indigenous and agronomy background, I appre- ciate that First Nations people have intricately bred bush foods for many thousands of years with- out financial reward and more broadly acknowledged. Yet, when we purchase, grow and market a lot of our wheat and canola, for example, we sometimes have to pay royalties to the companies that own the breeding rights. Why aren’t we using as similar reward and recognition system when we use bush foods?” “I very much support Rayleen’s interests in blockchain to move Indigenous agriculture forward as well as our broader agricultural sector. Consumers are increas- ingly demanding to know where their food comes from, how it’s been grown and produced, so we need to start providing that evi- dence if we are not already.” For the bushfood sector it has been a bumpy road, though. “In the past, when organisa- tions have attempted to do this, it hasn’t been done in a culturally
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