WORKSHOP: Taste the Tradition: Bush Foods and Medicines for Generational Health and Wealth
Tracks
Ballroom 3 - In-Person Only
| Tuesday, October 13, 2026 |
| 1:20 PM - 1:40 PM |
| Ballroom 3 |
Overview
Yarraka Bayles Georgetown, Murri Menu
Three Key Learnings
1. How bush foods and medicines support holistic wellbeing and act as preventative health practices.
2. The role of culture, identity and connection to Country in strengthening mental health and resilience.
3. How Indigenous-led, multi-generational approaches create pathways for both generational health and economic empowerment
Presenter
Mrs Yarraka Bayles-georgetown
Founder/manager
Murri Menu
Taste the Tradition: Bush Foods and Medicines for Generational Health and Wealth
Presentation Overview
This presentation shares the story and practice of Murri Menu, a multi-generational Aboriginal family business that centers generational health and wealth through bush foods, medicines and cultural knowledge.
Grounded in lived experience, this session explores how returning to traditional ways of knowing, being and doing can prevent and reduce mental distress by strengthening identity, connection and purpose. Yarraka Bayles weaves together personal story, including her current cancer healing journey, alongside the legacy of her late father, to demonstrate how bush medicines and cultural practices continue to support holistic wellbeing across generations.
Through practical examples, participants will gain insight into how food is not only sustenance but medicine, and how reconnecting to Country, culture and community can shift wellbeing from crisis response to prevention. The session highlights the importance of embedding Indigenous knowledge systems into everyday life, workplaces and community settings in a way that is respectful, strengths-based and led by lived experience.
Murri Menu is presented not just as a business, but as a living model of cultural continuity, healing and economic empowerment—demonstrating how generational wealth and health are deeply interconnected.
Yarraka presents with her children and grand children just as her parents and grand parents did with her.
This is the epitome of generational health and wealth in real time that will leave a lasting impression on all who see and hear.
Grounded in lived experience, this session explores how returning to traditional ways of knowing, being and doing can prevent and reduce mental distress by strengthening identity, connection and purpose. Yarraka Bayles weaves together personal story, including her current cancer healing journey, alongside the legacy of her late father, to demonstrate how bush medicines and cultural practices continue to support holistic wellbeing across generations.
Through practical examples, participants will gain insight into how food is not only sustenance but medicine, and how reconnecting to Country, culture and community can shift wellbeing from crisis response to prevention. The session highlights the importance of embedding Indigenous knowledge systems into everyday life, workplaces and community settings in a way that is respectful, strengths-based and led by lived experience.
Murri Menu is presented not just as a business, but as a living model of cultural continuity, healing and economic empowerment—demonstrating how generational wealth and health are deeply interconnected.
Yarraka presents with her children and grand children just as her parents and grand parents did with her.
This is the epitome of generational health and wealth in real time that will leave a lasting impression on all who see and hear.
Biography
Yarraka Bayles is an award-winning Aboriginal artist, media personality and entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience across cultural practice and activism on a global scale. As founder of Murri Menu, a multi-generational family business grounded in cultural knowledge, Yarraka draws on lived experience, including her current cancer journey and how traditional knowledge continues to support healing—just as it did for her late parents and grandparents. Her work centres generational health and wealth through holistic cultural practices that nourish the mind, body and spirit. Yarraka delivers powerful presentations alongside her children and grand children to keep the family legacy alive.
