Autumn Deepens: Foraging, the season of Winyuwangga and Samhain
Autumn is deepening across my region: the blush of colour on the local trees is erupting into dazzling flame and other Autumnal themes imported from the Northern Hemisphere are materialising in the landscape all around me. A scattering of mushrooms here and there, blackberries, hawberries, rosehips, apples and crab apples ripe and glistening.
Sadly, an early frost be-deviled the blackberries before I could get to them on the weekend and the normally bountiful harvest I gather from my local haunt had already been stripped. My harvest basket was a bit light on this year but there were enough blackberries to colour and flavour the apple crumble and enough hawberries to display, bobbing merrily in my favourite milk jug. The harvest moon, only four days from the Equinox, provided a fitting ambience for the evening.
While the berries and flame-coloured leaves are deeply familiar and significant to me, as they were to my ancestors who inhabited Northern and Western Europe for thousands of years, they are also colonisers that have profoundly impacted the landscape in the same way human colonisers affected Australia’s First Nations.
The Ngunnawal people were the original custodians of this Country (region) and recognised entirely different seasons and seasonal markers. For the Ngunnawal, the late summer of Winyuwangga is turning to the early winter of Magarawangga. An important food source at this time of year are seeds from the Kurrajong trees. Saltbush are glowing with tiny, edible berries and are one of the only fruiting plants in Ngunnawal country at this time of year. It is also breeding season for the Superb Lyrebirds, found in forested areas and renowned for their elaborate vocal mimicry.
There is so much more to learn about the seasons on Ngunnawal Country and the meaning it has for Ngunnawal people, who existed on these lands for many thousands of years before colonisation, and I plan to explore this more deeply. I also believe, that in order for me to truly understand this place I call home, and the deep connection between Country and its original people, it is important for me to understand my own ancestral cultures, how they related to their lands and seasons, and to relearn (remember) the traditions, customs and folklore that connected them with their ‘place,’ the landscapes and the seasons.
That is a large part of the reason I started this publication in the first place, apart from it also being interesting and fun. It has almost been a full year since I started Wheel & Cross and I don’t yet have a firm idea on what the new year will bring: should I focus on my personal journey through the seasons, how I celebrate, the customs and traditions that I practice and how the landscape around me changes; or should I focus on creating a podcast with the same type of material from this year? Maybe I should move the focus to seasonal celebrations from other parts of the world or more importantly, find a way to deep dive into the indigenous seasons and First Nations seasonal traditions, customs and beliefs?
If you have any ideas, suggestions or requests let me know. In the meantime, over the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring the final major celebration of the European seasonal cycle, Samhain and its modern evolution into Halloween.
Samhain - Part 1: Bonfires, Divination and Ancestors
Samhain - Part 2: Tricks, Treats and Scares
Samhain - Part 3: Jack-O-Lantern
Samhain - Part 4: Creatures of Darkness
To ‘whet your whistle’ for the coming spooky season, here’s a short (3:11 mins) film by National Geographic, on the history of Halloween:
Beautiful evocative introduction and great info as always