Lyn's story features in the latest edition of Mid North Coast Now...click here to flip through the entire edition

“It’s such a peaceful place here. If I’m feeling a bit down on life, I’ll just come down here and sit. I could sit here all day.”

Auntie Lyn is a proud Worimi Gumbaynggirr woman. She has lived in Forster all her life and Pebbly Beach holds a special place in her heart.

“It was a big meeting place,” she said.

“On Sunday it was family day and all the families would walk down from the mission to spend the whole day out there. Men would fish for mullet and the women would gather berries or cook damper – it’s not like that any more though.”

In her own words Auntie Lyn is trying to “keep the dream alive”. She wants to share her knowledge of traditional bush foods with the community – indigenous and non-indigenous.

“Lots of people go out into the bush and get lost and they don’t know what’s good to eat, and there’s a lot of good things right here,” she said, pointing to the pig face growing on the headland. 

“Once the flower dies off and the fruit goes a darker shade of purple that’s when it’s ripe.  

“If you’re running short of water, a ready source of moisture can be found on the geebung trees.  “When the fruit goes a brown colour they’re ready to eat and have a slightly sweet taste.

“It’s like chewing gum.  

“If you couldn’t find any water you would suck on the seed and it would keep your mouth moist.”

Lots of the seaweed caught in the rockpools as the tide retreats is edible and traditionally would have been blanched in water over a fire. Back from the waterline, coastal plants have a wide variety of uses. Grevillea flowers are prized for their sweetness.

“You can just suck the honey off the flower or dunk it in your tea like you would add sugar,” she said.

Banksia seeds are also a versatile food source. Lyn’s grandmother would roast the seeds in coals or they can be ground into a type of flour.

“We’re saltwater people and we’d get our greens and meat from here – seaweeds, crabs, oysters and pippis – we would have to walk further down for the pippis but that’s what we would do,” Lyn said.

This coastal produce was traded with their Biripai neighbours in the Taree area – a system that continues today.

“We sometimes swap seafood for kangaroo. It’s really good and we use it all, like the tail for soup,” Lyn said.

One of her favourite fruits to gather as a girl was blackberries.

“But they’re a weed now,” she laughed.

“I’d eat them raw or take them home and make like a sponge pudding out of them. The wild raspberries are good too.

“We’d walk a long way to get them. We were so active – walking and dancing. I don’t remember ever being sick.”

She is concerned for future generations who don’t enjoy such an active lifestyle.

“Aboriginal people have so much heart disease, kidney disease, cancer…we have diabetes in our family. It makes me sad,” she said.

Lyn has four children, 17 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren and tells them about the foods easily available all around them.

“I worry about the kids – there’s so much fast food. All they want to do is go to McDonald’s,” she said.

In just a few generations life has changed so dramatically for the Worimi people. For example, Lyn’s great grandfather Coomba George Simon was one of the first indigenous people to be trucked into town to live on the newly created mission.

She remembers trailing along with her father William Simon, who was wearing a long shirt and big hat and carrying a big stick, wondering what he could possibly be up to.

“He’d go up near the Forster cemetery and climb a tree and light a fire stick,” Lyn said.

“I thought ‘what is he doing with that’ and he didn’t say. It was only as I got older that I found out he was getting the honey.”

The smoke from the flames is used to drive the bees away from the hive, making it possible to access the honey.

It was never described as ‘medicinal’ honey back then – it was just another nourishing food source gathered locally.

“My daughter Nicole said once ‘Mum, they’ve got this medicinal honey now’ and I just laughed and said ‘been there, done that’,” Lyn said.

But rather than lamenting lost knowledge, Lyn gives of her time to spread what knowledge she can with her family and the wider community.  

“The little ones listen and they learn - they all love pippis, fish, crabs and prawns,” she said with optimism and the hope that she is indeed  ‘keeping the dream alive’.