Ngkwarle - Sweet Food
Ngkwarle is foods that are like honey, although some of them are not particularly sweet. It includes wild honey, honeyants, nectar, edible gum and lerp.
Wild Honey
| Arrernte | Ngkwarle arwengalkere |
| English | Native Bee honey |
| Story | You find this honey up in a hollow in a tree. You find a little 'nose' that is made out of wax sticking out and you chop into the tree and split it open. You get the head part first, where the native bee larvae are, and then the honey. The head part is solid. It's firm and you eat it too, as well as the little white larvae you get from it. And then you get the honey itself and put it in an urtne or billycan and eat it. |
Honeyants
| Arrernte | Ngwarle yerrampe |
| English | Honeyant |
| Scientific | Melophorus camponotus |
| Story | Honeyants are found in the ground under Mulga trees. It's nest is a bit different from other ants' nests. The holes on the surface are small and you dig down from the openings following the shaft. You follow it down, digging and scooping out the dirt. You get the honeyants that are on the side in the main part of the nest, all in a row, and drag them out with a little stick. You bite on the abdomen and suck the honey from it.....sometimes women would dig out a nest only to find a bilby there already......"lets eat the bilby not the honeyants and the bilby already has the honeyants inside it." (Mingkiri) |
Nectar
| Arrernte | Ngkwarle ntewale |
| English | Bloodwood flower nectar |
| Scientific | Corymbia opaca |
| Story | Ntewale is the flower of the bloodwood tree which has a pale nectar. Native bees get honey from these flowers. You break off the flower and suck it, or you shake the nectar, which is almost clear, onto your hand and lick it up. |
Gum
| Arrernte | Ngkwarle alkerampwe |
| English | Mulga tree gum |
| Scientific | Acacia aneura (tree) |
| Story | You find round bits of this gum sitting in a row on a branch of the Mulga Tree. There are clear bits and red bits. You break a branch off and suck off the gum. Kids like it. |
Lerp
| Arrernte | Ngkwarle aperaltye |
| English | River Red Gum leaf scale |
| Scientific | Eucalyptus camaldulensis (tree) |
| Story | You shake the branches of the River Red Gum that have small waxy white flakes on their leaves. The aperaltye falls fom the leaves onto a sheet you pack it all together into a lump. |
Compare with Sonoran Desert cultures.
