A taste of Country: eating and learning your way through First Nations Canberra
Updated 8 Sep 2026
Canberra's national attractions are a must for First Nations cultural experiences when visiting Australia’s national capital. But there’s more to get involved in than what’s behind the glass.
At the National Museum of Australia, you can touch, taste and talk about bush foods and bush medicines with the person who grew up with that knowledge too.
Learn to see the garden differently
Wiradjuri man Adam Shipp of Yurbay runs a tour called Tasting Australia across all seasons. It starts outside where, for the first hour, participants walk with Adam through the Museum’s landscaped gardens, learning to identify plants native to the Canberra region.
"Guests learn how to identify the plants, where they might find them in the local Canberra region, and then how they're used by First Nations people," Adam says.
That might mean watching a demonstration of how rope and string are made from traditional fibre plants, and how those fibres become baskets, nets and rope. It might mean learning which plants can be brewed into tea, and how.
They can take that knowledge away, and once they're confident in identifying the right plants, they can try that at home as well."
From the garden to the tasting table
The second hour moves indoors, where the walk becomes a tasting. Participants sit down to sample a changing menu of bush foods, from native seeds processed using traditional grinding methods to fruits and, depending on the season, bush berries picked fresh from the garden. There are bush medicines to try too – mostly topical ones, which guests are encouraged to rub in and test for themselves.
It's a deliberately loose format, with two-way conversation and a comfortable setting.
'It's really just an informal kind of workshop,' Adam says. 'It's not like a Q&A at the end – people are encouraged to ask questions as we go, from each thing.'
Everything on offer shifts with the seasons, so no two visits are quite the same. "You've got the core things that I talk about, and then the tasting menu may change over different seasons in terms of what's available."
Fresh eyes on a familiar landscape
Ask Adam why a visitor to Canberra should make time for it, and the answer isn't really about the food at all.
“For me, why I do these workshops is to give visitors an understanding of what's there in that local Country, and connect them a little bit more to those plants and foods and medicines that have been used for such a long time,” he says. “It gives them a deeper connection to the Country they're visiting.”
The effect tends to outlast the workshop itself. “People see the country differently once they learn a bit more about the things that are out there – what I use, and what's been used for such a long time,” Adam says.
“The plants are often quite widespread across Canberra. They’re often the really common plants you'll find in a lot of the reserves and regions around the ACT – things people walk past every day without knowing they've got an edible flower or seed.
“People walk out into the bush afterwards and see it with fresh eyes, and realise how much Country has provided, and continues to provide, for First Nations people.”
It's a shift other visitors to Canberra have described too – after a cultural walk with a local knowledge holder, one visitor said he'd never looked at a tree the same way again. Adam knows the feeling well.
“That's the aim – to make it more than just a plant you drive past or walk past every day. It gives a fresh eye and perspective on things.”
Knowledge passed down
For Adam, the workshops are an extension of something much more personal.
“It's a really important component culturally – these are foods that have sustained our mob and families for such a long time,” he says. “I see it as a way of connecting to culture, and it can be done daily as well.”
At home, Adam’s own children reach for a bush remedy whenever they're feeling under the weather, in the way earlier generations had consulted the bush.
“It's a good way to still connect to those old ways – how our people have done and used things for such a long time – and keep it going, and pass on that knowledge to the next generation, so it's not forgotten.”
More than a walk through the museum
Visitors to Canberra know to expect the nationalattractions– the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the Australian War Memorial. What's easier to miss is everything that sits just beneath the surface, waiting for those who plan ahead to find it.
Adam's workshops are that accessible, hands-on experience everyone can enjoy, and they’re just a short walk from some of the city's biggest attractions. They might change the way you see a tree, a garden bed, or a stretch of bush for good.
Added to the Canberra itinerary, it becomes more than a city of national attractions – it becomes a place where Country, culture and flavour meet, and where anyone willing to ask a question is welcome to taste the answer.
Visiting this spring? Catch Feast of Flowers at Floriade.
For a limited run this season, Adam's tasting workshops are teaming up with Floriade.
From 25 to 27 September, Tasting Australia: Feast of Flowers with Adam Shipp, presented by the National Museum of Australia, brings a special edition of the experience to the festival itself.
The workshop focuses on native flowers that are both edible and medicinal, alongside the regular seasonal sessions at the Museum.
