Brooke Prentis
Monday, 30 June 2025
I love the smell of freshly baked bread. I actually love bread in many forms – plain white sliced, sourdough, garlic bread, and of course, warm banana bread.
I’m sure many of us remember the days of COVID and so many people got into making sourdough! I was not one of them, but I did enjoy many sourdough loaves from friends! I do love the taste of bread, but I also love that bread is often supported by hospitality, or hospitality is supported by bread.
The World’s First Breadmakers
Bread takes me to ancient practices. In these lands now called Australia are over 300 nations of Aboriginal peoples. Two key cultural values of Aboriginal peoples are hospitality and generosity. Archaeological evidence has been found that Aboriginal people have been producing flour for over 30,000 years. This overturns what was previously thought that the Egyptians started bread-making, 17,000 years ago (architectureau.com/articles/architects-design-exhibition-of-indigenous-grasses/). Aboriginal peoples are now recognised as the world’s first bread makers and first bakers. Of course, we have known this, as it has been passed down from the Elders. Science is just catching up.
One of the Aboriginal ways of making bread uses the seeds of the Grasstree (Xanthorrhoea). The Grasstree is a very special plant to Aboriginal peoples. In addition to the seeds, which are ground down to make flour to make bread, there are at least nine different uses of the Grasstree. These uses include water, food, fire, oil, glue, spears and bedding, and the flowers are added to water for a sweet drink like cordial. The Grasstree is very versatile, needs shallow soil to grow, and is even fire resistant. These properties make the Grasstree the perfect name for the network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders, started by Aunty Dr Jean Phillips in 2012, and which I have had the privilege to be the volunteer coordinator, the Grasstree Gathering. Uncle Joe Kirk, a Senior Aboriginal Christian Leader and bush tucker expert, was the first one to explain to me the uses of the Grasstree at the Grasstree Gathering and, specifically, about the seeds of the Grasstree being ground down to make flour to make bread. He also taught me the joy that comes from adding native mint to your weet-bix!
It is not only the Grasstree seeds that Aboriginal peoples used for making bread. It varied amongst our nations depending on what natural resources Creator provided in each of our nations. Other plants that can be used to make flour for bread include native millet, kangaroo grass and certain varieties of wattleseed. Who gave us the bread recipe? Creator God. And our bread was low carb/no carb, as Creator intended it to be. Our breadmaking is part of the Dreaming, our whole system of law and living, given from the Creator, to the first generation of Elders and passed from generation to generation to generation over thousands of years continuing to today. Since time immemorial. Genesis 1, is the greatest Aboriginal Dreaming story ever told: ‘Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding see and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it”’ (Gen 1.11).
Bread brings community together
Bread takes me to community. We love a Bunnings sausage sizzle where the funds go to the community, but you can’t have a sausage sizzle without bread! Bread can also be a communal dish. While I didn’t get into the sourdough making, I have been involved in other bread making in community on Adnyamathanha Country making damper with Aunty Rev Dr Denise Champion (www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/soul-search/heal-country:-naidoc-week-with-brooke-prentis-denise-champion/13410438). On Yuggera Country at an Aboriginal funeral with Johnny Cakes made by Aunty Ellie, and actually, nearly at every Aboriginal funeral, with Johnny Cakes made by one of the Aunty’s (www.sbs.com.au/food/the-cook-up-with-adam-liaw/recipe/johnny-cakes/nnsu97lko). On Luritja Country making banana bread with wattleseed as part of a school trip. And, of course, communion at church, Christian conferences, or on retreat. Sadly, I feel like I attend more Aboriginal funerals than receiving communion in a church; this is the lived reality of the lack of closing the gap.
Bread on Country
Bread takes me to Country. Uluru is on Anangu Country. Uluru is a culturally and spiritually significant place to the Anangu peoples. Uluru is a natural and cultural wonder to many Australians and people all over the world with over 250,000 visitors each year. I have been to Uluru three times in my life. There is a particular place at Uluru, shown to me by an Anangu guide, where the women would make the bread. On Anangu Country, the bread making is done with the native millet. You can see the many smooth holes in the rock from the grinding native millet seeds and the kneading of the dough. Smooth holes created over thousands of years, from many thousands of hands, of many generations of Anangu women. Standing in that place, seeing the grooves, imagining the women yarning, laughing, and making for community, for family, and possibly as an act of hospitality for visiting Aboriginal peoples.
I thought about my own family recipe of damper, passed down by my Aboriginal matriarchs. It’s my Great Nan’s recipe, passed to her daughter, my Nan, passed to her daughter, my Mum, passed to her daughter, me, and will be passed to my nieces when they are a bit older. Generations of Wakka Wakka women. My family damper recipe has been made in the last 10 years to share as part of communion at the end of my theological paper, co-written with Major Sandra Crowden/McLean, ‘Learning to be guests of ancient hosts on ancient lands’, which is where I gave Jesus the name, the Great Un-Settler. Jesus unsettled me there on Anangu Country, as I looked out over the place where the native millet, which God provided, still grows, but also as I stood in a place once vibrant with community of Anangu women, now with a lone young Anangu woman, my guide, whose grandmother had helped with the Bible translation into the Pitjantjatjara language. Jesus unsettles me in heart, mind and spirit each and every day because I am a Christian, and it is when I am unsettled that I know I am on the good path.
Jesus – the bread of life
Bread takes me to the Bible. Bread is mentioned 355 times in the King James Version, just slightly more times than mercy (352), love (333) and prayer (333). In John 6 alone, bread is mentioned 47 times in the NRSVUE. John 6 takes us to community sharing in bread – the feeding of the five thousand, a reminder of the ancestors eating the manna from heaven given by God, not Moses, and shared with others, and Jesus’ declaration, ‘I am the bread of life.’
Bread in our every-day
Bread takes me to every-day life. Whether that be your own bread or someone else’s bread. For many their morning toast with vegemite or spread of choice or my favourite breakfast at home white pane di casa topped with avocado, grape tomatoes, baby bocconcini, salt and pepper. Bread at the supermarket, at the bakery, at the café, and that includes the gluten free varieties! Or perhaps once a month at church for communion, and I love the churches that just have gluten free for everyone. Bread is with us most days; Jesus is with us always. Always. As I eat my physical bread in my every-day, each chew is a great prompt to pray. We must pray. Always. In a world now run by slogans and memes, we must ensure in thought, word and deed, that we do not turn Jesus declaring ‘I am the bread of life’ into a slogan or meme. We live in challenging times and I have to actively seek out physical and spiritual nourishment. I often find the physical and spiritual nourishment in ancient practices, with community, and on Country, with Jesus, the Great Un-Settler. Let us, in community, in our present generations, take Jesus seriously, and seek Jesus for spiritual nourishment. In a noisy, economically fragile, hate filled, racism prevalent, and war-torn world, we need Jesus, the bread of life. ‘For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’ (Jn 6.33).
Brooke Prentis is a Wakka Wakka woman and Aboriginal Christian Leader. Brooke is an Education, Cultural and RAP Consultant, writer, speaker, theologian and poet.
Image credit: Harry Rose, South West Rocks Australia. Wiki Commons
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