Brenden Moore – First Nations Community Greening Officer, The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.

Brenden has qualifications in Horticulture, Aboriginal Studies, and Community and Social Development. He uses his skills and experience to inspire Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and schools to reconnect with nature and the environment and learn about native plants, bush regeneration, gardening, health and wellbeing.

Gerry Turpin – Manager, Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre, James Cook University.

Gerry is a Mbabaram man from North Qld and a renowned Ethnobotanist, He has worked with many Traditional Owner groups on Cape York and other parts of Queensland. He has a strong cultural commitment to facilitating effective partnerships that support Indigenous communities to protect, manage and maintain their cultural knowledge on the use of plants.

Sophie Ader – Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, QAAFI, Uni of Qld

Sophie has worked in partnership with Indigenous communities to collaboratively design and codeliver projects which meet communities’ selfidentified aspirations and needs, forming long term relationships which span more than a decade.
Sophie will talk on case studies of successful indigenous owned & led native botanical supply chains.

Jude Mayall – President of Qld Bushfood Association and owner of Wild Food Farm, Victoria. https://www.wildfoodfarm.com.au/

Chef Jude Mayall is passionate about native foods and flavours. In her work with indigenous artists over many years, she has gained precious knowledge about the harvesting and gathering of native bush foods and the importance of looking after the land. She will talk about the culinary uses of bushfoods.

Dr Ian Cock – Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security Griffith University

Ian is a regular speaker at previous Bush Foods conferences. He has done extensive research on Phytochemistry, Medicinal Properties, Bioactive Compounds, and Therapeutic Potential of many Australian indigenous species. Ian will talk about the medicinal use of Kakadu Plum.

Dr Andrew Pengelly – Indigenous Plants for Health

Andrew has had a 40-year career as an herbal practitioner, naturopath, lecturer, aromatherapist, researcher, field botanist and program director for several universities and colleges. He has a strong research and clinical interest in the use of Australian plants. Andrew will talk on native greens for health.

Dick Copeman – Bushfood Partnerships with First Nations. Development and management of bush foods in the urban environment. Application and use of bush foods including traditional uses and management.

Northey Street City Farm has had an evolving series of relationships and partnerships with First Nations people and groups, including around bush foods. This presentation will outline what we have learnt from this history and describe our current efforts to develop a lasting partnership that will potentially include sharing of knowledge and skills, co-management of the ‘urban commons’ and development of social enterprises around bush foods.

Russell Stanford – Correctional Officer, Palen Creek Correctional Centre

Russell will give a talk on his experiment with grafting Kakadu Plum onto Sea Almond

Paula Nihot

Paula is a descendant of Susan of the Namoi in the Gamilaraay language region. Paula has extensive project management experience and utilises her visual art skills to communicate with audiences. Paula is a trusted community member who supports a range of cultural activities including bush tucker education sessions and Yugambeh Youth Aboriginal Corporation activities. Passionate about community participatory processes, Paula has facilitated and evaluated evidence based preventative health projects including the Gold Coast Fever Clinic survey, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus Group discussions and Galagir ngaurai (youth speak) health and wellbeing.

Attila Kapitany

Attila specialises in arid, semi-arid (dry climate) succulent plants that cover 70%of the continent. These are primary food and water sources for indigenous people in arid regions. He will be showing an extraordinary range of edible succulent plants, some of which have never been considered in the bushfood industry. Also some of the latest University research findings about a few of these plants that are certain to excite. A new and very different perspective about these plants will be explored for their potential as food.

Mark Tucek

Mark will talk about his business Tucker Bush, how it started and where it is now.
https://tuckerbush.com.au/

Jade King

Jade King has a passion for soil chemistry, plant physiology, entomology and all things agricultural and will answer all your questions on Finger Limes

Vinesh Prasad – Manager of Banyula

Vinesh Prased is currently working in Byron Bay Hinterland with Banyula  (www.banyula.com.au), a corporate agriculture company that has Macadamia, Finger Limes, Davidson Plums, Beef cattle, and a plant nutrition production facility (www.ogradyrural.au).

He possesses in-depth knowledge on Sustainable Agricultural Production, Agroforestry Systems, Value Chain Studies, Climate Smart Agriculture, Nursery development, Plant propagation, Developing Farm Business plans, Livestock, Aquaculture, Apiculture, Training and Communications (Extension support).

Vinesh has served Fiji and the Pacific Region at large through Secretariat of Pacific Community (Agroforestry Specialist) and Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (Manager – Pacific Island Countries). He hails from a cane farming community in Labasa, Fiji.

Angela Seng-Williams – Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers

Michael Casey – Immediate Past President, Australian Institute of Horticulture, Green Infrastructure Consultant, Designer & Educator/Horticulturist Director Evergreen Infrastructure & MJC Horticulture.

Clarence Slockee – Proud Bundjalung Man & Horticulturist.

Growing up in the lush Tweed Valley with a long family history of bushmen, farmers and fishermen, Clarence has combined his love of teaching, culture, music, dance, and the bush with his roles at the Sydney Botanic Gardens and on Gardening Australia