Like her Aboriginal ancestors proud Palawa woman Kitana Mansell starts her day foraging for food.
The 22-year-old business development manager of Tasmania’s first Aboriginal-inspired food business, Palawa Kipli, harvests from an ever-expanding garden of native plants at Piyurakitina, Risdon Cove.
There’s usually some native bower spinach, kunzea, kunikung (pigface), and wattle seed on hand – depending on the season – and if she can beat the birds sometimes native cherries to pick.
She then darts around greater Hobart, visiting backyards that have proven to be a great source of pepperberries and other fruits and berries, followed by stops at various businesses for her wallaby meats, mutton bird and abalone.
Palawa Kipli has flourished since Kitanna began managing the business’ operations in 2020, showcasing Tasmanian Aboriginal culture through food, tours and history.
“It’s a very peaceful and satisfying process – knowing my ancestors have been doing this for thousands of years – and that I have the ability to bring that cultural practice back to life and help others reconnect with the land and the food while passing on the knowledge of our elders,” she said.
Having catered for approximately 1000 events over the past three years and after recently launching Kipli Takara Tours, a bush tucker tour branch of the business, Kitana said an increasing number of interstate and international tourists to the state are showing interest in Palawa Kipli’s offerings.
The business is a magnet for school groups, with a cooking class based on traditional Aboriginal food.
There are demonstrations, quizzes, activities and Palawala Kipli bush tucker products as prizes to keep the students engaged.
“Just as importantly I recount our history – that at Pirakitina we’re at the place where the first massacre of Aboriginals took place in Tasmania in 1804 and we talk about that true history and about what happened while leaning about the bush foods.”
By diversifying the business has been able to turn a small profit for the first time since Kitanna took the helm at age 19.
The cultural dining experiences, for up to 30 people, and the statewide catering service, have proved extremely popular, even catering at Dark Mofo for the past two years.
During the day Kitana is assisted by up to five casual Aboriginal staff who learn many skills on the job.
Conservation Tasmania comes on site every few months to help with weeding the little native garden, which she is hoping to expand if she can secure a grant.
Kitana great up in Launceston until she moved to Hobart with her mother at age 15, eventually working at Macquarie Point Development Corporation?? while completing her Certificate III in business.
Since she was about 12 she has been able to travel extensively with her mum, visiting countries all over the world.
“We made a point of experiencing the traditional food wherever we went, but everytime we came home I would notice there was nothing here that showcased our traditional foods – not even one restaurant.”
“That’s where the passion comes from in wanting to build Palawa Kipli.
“I started helping my cousin Tim Sculthorpe, who started the business, and was doing food stalls at Salamanca and Taste,“ she said.
When he moved to Sydney I stayed on board and a whole new chapter opened up, not just learning about tourism, education and catering, but taking part on judging panels, speaking in public and teaching myself more about my heritage.”
The business is now owned and operated by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, ensuring its direction is controlled by the Aboriginal community.
“While I’m in charge it’s about keeping that connection to community and taking their advice – I want to make sure the community is happy with how we deliver Palawa Kipli and never let our cultural values go due to business decisions or simply making money.
“The reason why we’re doing what we do is only to share our stories and create more opportunity for Aboriginal people to grow in confidence and learn about their traditional foods.”
Inviting guests out on Country to experience authentic Aboriginal food is where Ms Mansell’s passion truly lies.
“We’ve just launched our cultural dining experiences that we add to the (Kipli Takara) tours for people to book, if they want to take it to the the next level of Aboriginal food,” Kitana said.
“The (Kipli Takara) tour comes with modern Tasmanian Aboriginal food, which is a platter and some native sodas.
“And the cultural dining experience is a six-course meal, followed by the Kipli tucker tour.”
Kitana has lofty ambitions for Palawa Kipli after recently attending the World Indigenous Tourism Summit in Perth, where she rubbed shoulders with some of the the world’s most successful Indigenous business entrepreneurs including The Sioux Chef Mission founder Sean Sherman.
In May Kitana won recognised for tourism and hospitality excellence at the Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards.
Such is her passion for what she does, she admits it consumes her private time also, other than a game of netball each week.
“Every day I live for the cause of my community, support other aboriginal people through art, festivals – anything to connect with my community.
The final bushtucker tour for 2023 in on December 22 and dates for next year’s tours are about to be released.
Ms Mansell received a prize package valued at more than $2,500, part of which is admission to a leadership and mentoring programme.
She said she plans to use the training to up-skill herself in the tourism and hospitality industry to continue to grow both Palawa Kipli and Kipli Pakana.
“If I didn’t have the passion for it, then it would just be a job. But this is my whole life, Ms Mansell said.
“It’s everything that I put my heart and soul into every single day until I go to sleep.”