Drew Rooke

After a close encounter on a camping trip, I became fascinated by this continent’s most venomous snake. A creature as feared as it is misunderstood, the eastern brown snake offers a visceral rebuttal to the myth of human control over nature. 

I moved to the Blue Mountains late last year, just a few weeks before the bushfire crisis began its slow approach. For months we lived in fear, watching the landscape transform as we anticipated the arrival of the flames.

Marketed as ‘superfoods’ and ‘reinvented’ by international chefs, demand for Australian native foods has exploded in recent years. But in an industry built on millennia of Indigenous knowledge, why aren’t Indigenous growers and suppliers reaping more of the benefits?