Kere - Meat Food

(Ker-a) is food from animals, especially meat. It is also used in describing other foods from animals such as fat, eggs, blood and intestines. Animals which are sources of food can also be described as Kere.

 

Reptiles

Arrernte	Kere atyunpe
English	Perentie
Scientific	Varanus giganteus
Story	You catch perenties in a tree, a burrow or just walking around. You hit them on the back of the head or the lower back. When you've killed it you pull some of its guts out through the mouth and other guts out through the backside. You singe it on the fire to get the skin off then join the legs together with sticks and fold the tail under. You cook it in a lot of hot soil from a fire, covering it with dirt and coals until it's cooked.

Arrernte	Kere arntherrke
English	Carpet Snake
Scientific	Morelia bredli
Story	You catch the carpet snake in the hollow of a tree or at the opening of its burrow when it warms itself in the sun in winter. You cook it in hot earth but singe it first to get the scales off. You put two straight cuts in the skin on the back either side of the spine all the way to the tip of the tail so that the fat won't burst out after the skin is singed. Then you coil the snake up and cook it in hot soil. When it is ready, you slice down the back where you cut it before to split it open. It feeds a lot of people.

Mammals

Arrernte	Kere aherre
English	Red Kangaroo
Scientific	Macropus rufus
Story	You find Red Kangaroos in Mulga Country. In the old days, people used to set their dogs on them and spear them. Nowadays, people shoot them. The milk guts are pulled out and a stick is used to close up the carcase. Then it is tossed on top of a fire to singe the hair which is scraped off, and then it's put in a hole and covered up with hot eath and coals to cook. The tail and both feet are cut off and are put in with the carcase. The kangaroo is chopped up so that a lot of people can eat it. The warm blood and fluids from the thighs and hollow of the chest are drunk. All Arrernte people cut it up the same way into; two thighs, two hips, two sides of ribs, head, stomach, tail, two feet, the back and the lower back.

Arrernte	Kere antenhe
English	Possum
Scientific	Trichosurus vulpecula
Story	You catch possums when they are moving around in the moonlight or when they are in the hollows of the gum trees. You gut them, close them up with sticks, singe the fur off and then cook them in hot soil. When you eat them after they have been eating nectar from Bloodwood trees, they taste really sweet, especially the milk guts. There used to be a lot of possums but nowadays they are few and far between.

Arrernte	Kere inape
English	Short-beaked Echidna
Scientific	Tachyglossus aculeatus
Story	You get echidna amongst boulders, in tree hollows or burrows. They have got spines all over their back so you have to hit it on the chest to kill it. You gut it from the middle of the stomach, pulling out the milk guts and then closing them up with sticks. You make a hollow in the coals and put it on top with its back facing up then cover it with hot ashes so the spines can get soft enough to scrape off with an axe or stone scraper. When all of the spines have been removed, you cook it in a round hole in the hot earth.

Birds

Arrernte	Kere ankerre
English	Emu
Scientific	Dromaius novaehollandiae
Story	Emus are around all the time, in green and dry times. You pluck the feathers out first, then pull out the crop from the stomach, and put in the feathers you've pulled out, and then singe it on the fire. You wrap the milk guts that you've pulled out in something like gum leaves and cook them. When you've got the fat off you cut the meat up and cook it on fire made from river red gum wood. People before used to spear emus, but nowadays they shoot them with guns. An emu will feed a lot of people.

Arrernte	Kere artewe
English	Wild Turkey
Scientific	Ardeotis australis
Story	There are wild turkeys around in the summer, and in green times. They eat grasshoppers, mistletoe berries and bush currants. They can fly too. To cook them, you singe the feathers on the fire, pull out the crop and guts from the backside and them cook them in hot earth.

Arrernte	Kere thipe ilentye
English	Galah
Scientific	Cacatua roseicapilla
Story	The galah has a lot of meat on the chest. Kids and women eat it for colds or other sickness. You pluck the feathers and singe it on a fire, then cook it in hot earth. It cooks very quickly and then you can eat it. This bird lives all over central Australia.

Compare with Sonoran Desert culture.