Fruits Of The Sea

To the people of Arnhem Land, shellfish and other sea creatures nourish a link to country and culture.

- David Hancock

WHEN THE YOLNGU of north-eastern Arnhem Land look to the sea, they know the season from the direction and feel of the wind. One thing the wind communicates, they say, is when certain maypal are plump and ready to be gathered.

The term maypal covers many marine and some terrestrial creatures that have sustained generations of Yolngu for millennia. In one sense it means shellfish. But maypal include foods non-Indigenous Australians might not consider to be in that category, such as land snails, marine worms and insect larvae, including witchetty grubs. Maypal are fundamental to Yolngu culture. They are tasty and easy to harvest; just go down to the beach or among the mangroves. And they sustain coastal people not only physically, but also spiritually and emotionally.

Huge middens of shells along Australia’s northern coastline attest to the popularity of maypal: in some areas middens more than 30m high date back many thousands of years.

“In the north of Australia, we have an incredibly varied, rich and complex coastline, with a large number of ecological zones,” says Dr Bentley James, a Northern Territory anthropologist and linguist who lived in Arnhem Land for many years. “There are more than 1500km of coastline on the mainland and another 1750km on the islands, not to mention all the reefs and sand bars.”