ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the manner in which nineteenth-century European explorers of Australia understood and wrote about Aboriginal foodways in their published journals. Observations regarding food habits are a lens through which to explore the complex relationship between European and Indigenous people in Australia during the period of rapid colonial expansion. Food, and the manner in which it was consumed and prepared, became one aspect through which these explorers measured the degree of civilization of the Aboriginal people they encountered. The descriptions of Aboriginal foodways found in exploration narratives were imbued with a wide range of preconceptions of what was deemed fit and appropriate to eat and which often posited the Aboriginal palate as less civilized than the European one. These attitudes also reflected widely held beliefs regarding the nature of Aboriginal people and culture.
