One of Australia’s most acclaimed Aboriginal chefs will be sharing his signature infusions of contemporary outback flavours at a series of free cooking demonstrations to celebrate NAIDOC Week.
Mark Olive, aka ‘The Black Olive’, will host three demonstrations at the City of Sydney’s free NAIDOC in the City event on Monday 4 July at Hyde Park.
Innovative Australian Indigenous cuisine will be served alongside marinated meats and vegetables cooked in the ground in two earth ovens.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the interactive cooking demonstrations and feasting were designed to give people a taste of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander foods.
“The earth oven is one of the many highlights of NAIDOC in the City this year, we’re delighted Mark Olive will be joining us to lend a hand. Sydneysiders, city workers and visitors are all welcome to come along and enjoy some of the wonderful food on offer.
“NAIDOC in the City is a time to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and identity, and the earth oven feast is a great way to bring our local communities together. This is a fun way for everyone to learn more about Australia’s First Peoples,” the Lord Mayor said.
Earth ovens are a traditional method of cooking underground using hot rocks and natural materials to seal in the heat and slow cook food for hours.
A Bundjalung man born in Wollongong, Mark Olive became interested in cooking as a child, watching his mother and aunts prepare meals. He trained under a European chef and worked in a number of restaurants around the globe before establishing his own business in 2008.
NAIDOC Week, from 3–10 July, is a national program that celebrates the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, which grew from the first political groups seeking rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the 1920s.
The theme for NAIDOC Week 2016 is Songlines:The Living Narrative of Our Nation. The themegives all Australians the opportunity to learn about the Dreamtime, when the earth, people and animals were created by ancestral spiritual beings who created the rivers, lakes, plants, land formations and living creatures.
Dreaming tracks criss-cross Australia and trace the journeys of ancestral spirits as they created the land. These dreaming tracks are sometimes called songlines, as they record the travels of ancestral spirits who sang the “land into life”.
NAIDOC in the City, Monday 4 July, 11am–3pm, Hyde Park North NAIDOC in the City is produced by 33creative.com.au
Cooking demonstrations with Mark Olive 11.30am–midday Crusted Kangaroo Fillets 12.30pm–1.30pm Lemon Myrtle Barramundi 1.45pm–2.15pm Native herbs and flavours
Earth Oven: food available from midday Tuck into a feast from the two earth oven pits – a traditional method of cooking underground using hot rocks and natural materials to seal in the heat and slow cook food for hours.
The food is marinated overnight in traditional sauces and rubs, and then steamed, roasted and barbecued all at once in the earth ovens. The earth ovens will be prepared by Goanna Hut, which specialises in native modern bush tucker.
For media inquiries or images, contact City of Sydney Senior Publicist Elaine Kelly on 0477 362 550 or ekelly@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au For interviews with Lord Mayor Clover Moore, contact Matt Levinson on 0499319385 or mlevinson@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au