Since David Doyle was a kid, he was taught about native plants by his grandparents and elders in Menindee, 100 kilometres from Broken Hill in NSW's far-west.
The 43-year-old Barkindji and Malyangaba man uses his knowledge of plants for contemporary cooking and to make bush medicine.
But after seeing the lack of people being taught about country, he's part of the Our Yarning Bush Tucker Stories project to create a book for younger generations.
"I like to use them a lot more contemporarily so with our healing medicines I put them into soaps and creams and the bush foods are put into more modern types of foods, like our warrigal greens being made into pesto."
He is working with Library For All's Our Yarning project to help make knowledge of traditional bush food easily accessible.
"A plant identification book aimed at high school kids is nice and easy reading, then we had the idea of uploading it to the Library For All and having it across different age group ranges," Mr Doyle says.
Representing Indigenous children in books
Cultural adviser and Nurrunga and Ngarrendjeri woman Julie Owen is based in Broome but has been travelling across Australia to help gather stories as part of Our Yarning.
It is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection for children that began in March last year.
"What we learn as children, we take it with us as adults, but we learn to add to it, we learn experiences through those things, and we learn to share it with our own families," Dr Owen says.
Dr Owen says these stories can help in making young Indigenous people feel represented in literature.
"We're just making sure that we have the voices that tell the lovely stories, to tell the stories of our hardships, of friendships, of community, of family, of travel, so that children learn that these are all part of their lives."
A step in decolonising practices
Kabi Kabi and Australian South Sea Islander woman Kelleigh Ryan is the co-founder and director of The Seedling Group and specialises in intergenerational trauma and resilience for First Nations people.
She has been part of co-designing the project and says the stories are an important way to pass on valuable knowledge about First Nations practices that are often lacking in schools and communities.
She says it is a way to "rebirth" information for the wider community of Australia to promote understanding.
"I would love to see this in all communities so that knowledge is being shared not just to other Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people but through our schools too," Ms Ryan says.
She also believes it is a "small step in the right way" of decolonising practices.
"Repairing that damage that was done and the fracturing that was done by colonisation," Ms Ryan says.
"You can't buy a brown-skinned bandage … being able to actually have visibility and not being 'othered' is incredibly important and is really good for your identity and really good for your social-emotional wellbeing."
Mr Doyle says creating literature that embraces First Nations culture and knowledge contributes to the resilience of Indigenous people in Australia.
"For me, it's a continuation of culture. Aboriginal people have always adapted to any situation, whether it be environmental colonisation and loss of land," he says.
"So we've always adapted."
