People eat food items that are appealing to them, and they often remember with nostalgia those items which their parents and grandparents cooked at family dinners when they were young. The idea of eating a food item that is non-traditional is often repugnant to a person who is not into experimenting. And, certain foods may always have been defined by one’s own culture as something that “others” eat. In the case of modern white Australians, they apparently feel  revulsion when it is suggested that they turn to eating kangaroo and wallaby species. After all, those species have always been identified as food for the “Abos” or Aboriginal people, who have traditionally not been treated very well or regarded with the respect they deserve as fellow humans. When seen from such an anthropological perspective, it would be surprising if many Australians suddenly decided to seek out kangaroo meat and make it a part of the national cuisine.

Other people in far away lands have apparently accepted kangaroo meat as something exotic, and have thus discovered that they not only like the taste, but they feel no social stigma about consuming it – they do not feel that they would be labeled as akin to Aboriginals if they identified themselves as connoisseurs of this product.

The BBC News recently reported that the kangaroo meat industry in Australia is seeking new names for the product, in hopes that it would sell “at home”. At present, it is mainly sold overseas. The industry is trying to entice Australians to come up with a name for the product that shall make it more attractive, more “mainstream”, and less identifiable with its former associations with Aboriginal people.

While IWMC sympathizes with those in the kangaroo control industry in their efforts to sell their product at home, we hold out no great hope that this shall happen overnight, and while the cultural integration into society of Aboriginal people is still less than complete.

When kangaroo food is no longer identified as appropriate only for a certain social class, it may be accepted by young Australians who may think it is “cool” to consume it, partly in an effort to shock their elders, and partly because it may be a good buy, and perhaps, even, because it tastes good to them.

IWMC welcomes any effort to popularize kangaroo meat for domestic consumption. There would be no more efficient way to manage these animals, as they compete with sheep and cattle for grassland down under. Better a sustainable, culturally supported use than a waste of the product, or a situation where it is forever shunned on the home turf.

Good luck, Australia.