The Australian Native Food Festival is long overdue – it’s happening this weekend

• The inaugural Australian Native Food Festival is happening across two days at Carriageworks this weekend.
• Around 20 First Nations stallholders will showcase the depth and breadth of native Australian ingredients and bushfoods.
• There will be ticketed cooking demonstrations, talks and workshops from some big names including Kylie Kwong and Ben Shewry.

After three decades of sharing her knowledge of native Australian cuisine, Ngemba Weilwan woman Sharon Winsor is finally realising a long-held dream with Sydney’s inaugural Australian Native Food Festival, held at Carriageworks this weekend.

Winsor, whose business Indigiearth is a widely used source of lemon myrtle, salted dukkah and bush tomatoes, first pitched the free two-day festival concept five years ago. “They loved the idea and we were actually going to do it back then, but obviously the year that Covid hit it got pushed to the side like most things did,” she explained recently to The Guardian.

Now it’s up and running, and it’s about time we had this kind of platform to learn about, taste and immerse ourselves in what is well and truly the bedrock of Australian cuisine. More than 20 First Nations vendors will be on hand, working alongside chef demonstrations for big names like Kylie Kwong and Ben Shewry, and cultural workshops like a $49 Ngumpie Weaving Workshop that will teach the intricate art of basket weaving.

READ MORE: The best Aboriginal tours and experiences in Sydney

For the love of Native Australian flavours

The global spotlight on native Australian ingredients started to fix around the time Rene Redzepi staged a pop-up for his beloved Noma in 2016. With around 27,000 people on the waiting list, one of the most in-demand restaurant pop ups in history brought the famous chef to the nascent Barangaroo development.

It was a hit because of Redzepi’s creative use of native Australian ingredients, backed by his extensive research trips to the Northern Territory where he fell in love with everything from pepperberries and lemon myrtle to green ants and magpie geese.

The conversation around Australian bushfoods was already threaded by the likes of Shewry and Kwong, but Redzepi helped showcase it to the wider culinary world. His inspiration was obvious. Since Noma’s pop-up, more Australian kitchens have been using bushfoods in their cooking, helping us shape a proper definition of what Australian cuisine actually means.

There are over 6,000 edible native species in Australia. Yet there are only two prominent restaurants in Sydney where diners can experience Indigenous Australian food as a dedicated cuisine. That’d be Bush, in Redfern, and Midden by Mark Olive at the Sydney Opera House. Olive also has a spin-off stall at Hay St Market

The Australian Native Food Festival should continue to carry the conversation about bushfoods, beyond just talking of them as ingredients. As Carriageworks turns into a potent platform for Indigenous flavours, visitors will learn how to better incorporate these strong flavours into their cooking and hopefully walk away with a dozen new recipes to try.

“I wanted to do something like this celebrate native foods,” said Winsor. “To give back to my people and culture and to support the industry on a bigger scale.”

The festival’s programming deliberately showcases established Indigenous women in the industry. Saturday features Aunty Beryl Van Oploo, founder of Indigenous catering company Yaama Barrgay, demonstrating alongside Kwong, while Sunday sees Gomeroi/Guumbraay woman Kerrie Saunders join Pascoe.

“I wanted to bring in people like Kerrie Saunders and Raylene Brown from Alice because they’re women I’ve known for a very long time and who’ve done so much hard work in the industry,” Winsor explains. “Our women who’ve grown up black, they’ve done the hard yards, they’re our grassroots and they don’t get the opportunities they deserve.”

Beyond the ticketed demonstrations, much of the festival remains free and accessible. Visitors can browse diverse native Australian foods, purchase native plants from the festival nursery, or try Indigiearth’s pop-up cafe featuring dishes like oysters with green ants and finger lime pearls.

Winsor specifically chose September for its cultural significance – “a new season for us and that new beginning, new ceremony, new life cycle.” It’s prime time for lemon myrtle, wattleseed and quandong fruit.

What are some Native Australia dishes in Sydney?

If you head along on the Saturday or Sunday this week, you’ll likely walk away with a desire to try more Indigenous Australian dishes around Sydney. We’ve listed some of our favourites to make the search a bit easier for you.

• Indigenous Australian Grazing Plate ($44) from Midden by Mark Olive
  NSW regional cheeses, wild thyme hummus, smoked kangaroo, emu, tandoor crocodile, olives, pickled vegetables, marinated artichoke, roasted macadamia nuts, quandong paste, Tasmanian mountain pepper leaf flat bread.
• Parmigianno spaghetti with warrigal greens from Bush
• Eggplant with macadamia, quandong and amaranth ($24) from Me-Gal
• Spanner crab tart with lemon aspen mayonnaise and pepper berry aji amarillo ($29) from Midden by Mark Olive
• Kurobuta porkchop with gooseberries and black garlic ($82) from The Dining Room by James Viles
• Australian bay lobster roll with ziggy’s green ant hot sauce ($22) from The Waratah

Australian Native Food Festival

Where: Carriageworks; 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015
When: Saturday, September 27 – Sunday, September 28, 2025
Price: Free entry (ticketed workshops and cooking demonstrations available) with online registration