In Perth (Boorloo), the season of Birak is ushered in on a warm, salty breeze, sweeping aside the last of the cooler days. Also known as ‘first summer,’ Birak usually coincides with December and January, but in Noongar culture it is nature, rather than a calendar page, that declares Birak has arrived.

“You notice that in the early mornings, there’s no more dew on the ground,” says Steven Jacobs, a Whadjuk Noongar man and owner of In Culture Tours.

_{Steven Jacobs from In Culture Tours}

Before colonisation, Birak may have been scented by smoke. Steven explains that traditionally, this was an important time for managing the landscape through fire.

“Our control burns were just when the season’s about to change, and some of the green grasses are starting to turn a little bit yellow and dry,” he explains. “There was still enough greenness and moisture so it wouldn't get out of control. All the green grasses wouldn’t be burned, just thinned out for summer.”

But for Steven himself, his favourite thing about Birak is the fruiting of the quandong trees.

“I actually like picking quandongs and making jam out of it and giving people a taste on my tours,” Steven says. “People are amazed!”

While quandong can be eaten directly from the tree, Steven describes the taste as being a bit like orange peel.

“You can make it into a sweet dessert or jam, but you can also add other herbs to make it into a chutney,” he explains. “The Superfood people of the world have found this plant now, and they’re making it into a powder, and selling to people who are fitness fanatics.”

Steven’s tours operates in Fremantle (Walyalup), Rockingham’s Cape Peron (Boya Kaarla), and Kings Park (Kaarta Koomba). During Birak, the women of these areas would have been busy harvesting not only fruits, but also other edible seeds and roots.

_{Steven Jacobs from In Culture Tours in Kings Park (Kaarta Koomba)}

“As the land goes drier, yams and tubers would be dug up with digging sticks, and they can be roasted and eaten,” Steven explains.

Men would hunt kangaroos, and freshwater crayfish, such as koonacs and gilgies were understandably a favourite of the season.

“The crayfish would have been really good to catch then because the water's not cold,” Steven says. “We didn't have fishing lines, we always made our fish traps and nets.”

Further south in Mandurah (Mandjoogoordap), Kerry and Trevor Stack run Goolamwiin, a company offering tours and cultural awareness on Bindjareb Noongar country.

Kerry says that since she was a child, Birak has called her into the wild outdoors.

“The first chance us as kids could get after the wet weather, we’d just be out in the bush and exploring,” Kerry says. “You'd be out there making gings and going for birds and all sorts of stuff.”

These days, Kerry spends her time outdoors inspiring others, sharing the wisdom of sustainable living.

“We take people on country and show them how every season our people would move around,” she says. “You allow revegetation, you don't eat the land dry while it withers away.”

Kerry explains that after spending the colder months inland, the Bindjareb people would return to coastal country.

“We can see why people would come down this way during Birak,” Kerry says.

“They’d come down to Mandurah for the seafood!”

_{Thrombolites in Yalgorup National Park}

Birak is a fascinating time to join the Goolamwiin Day Tour. Guests join Kerry on Country in  Yalgorup National Park, where salty lakes support migrating water birds in their thousands and ancient, living rock-like structures called thrombolites.

During the walk, Kerry points out medicines and bushfoods like yams, and digs up some bloodroot, a spicy bulb like an onion.

For those short of time, the one-hour Goolamwiin Mangala Tour sees Trevor relate the story of the whale (Mangala), a boy, and the Noongar heavens.

“It’s the story of the boy whale rider,” Trevor explains. “He was the first death in our culture. And that's where the trees come in, the moodjar trees.” Also called Western Australian Christmas tree, moodjar trees are ablaze with vibrant orange blossoms during Birak, and Trevor says, the spirit of the boy rested in the tree. “Then, the Mangala takes him out to the heavens, which we believe are out to sea on the other side of Rottnest Island, out Carnac Island way.”

For Kerry and Trevor, keeping these stories alive for the next generation inspires their tour business.

“It's about educating people about our country, how our people survived, telling the stories that weren't told before,” Kerry explains. “That's why we've got into what we do, because if the stories aren't told, it makes it harder for our children, for our grandchildren.”

_{Steven Jacobs from In Culture Tours on Rottnest Island}

Published November 2024.