Dale TilbrookExperiences

Dale Tilbrook is a Wardandi Bibbulmun woman whose country is the Margaret River and Busselton area of Western Australia. She opened the Maalinup Gallery with her brother Lyall in 1998, selling Aboriginal art and gifts in the Swan Valley; the bush food side of the work grew out of visitors wanting more than souvenirs. Known locally as the Bush Tucker Queen, she now runs her tastings and walks from Mandoon Estate in Caversham, leading guests through a bush food garden with emu feeding before tasting quandong, native limes, sandalwood nuts, coastal greens, roasted wattleseed and lemon myrtle, alongside dishes such as youlk salad, kangaroo and bushtucker pies. She has taken the same knowledge further afield, presenting a Bushtucker Masterclass at Terra Madre in Turin, Italy. Her own description of the work: "Educating the world about Australian native edibles is an important part of my cultural journey." The tastings run alongside Aboriginal art workshops, but the plants and their food and medicinal uses remain the core of it — knowledge she frames as an extension of Aboriginal systems of sharing according to need and available resources.