Kungkas Can Cook

Description

Rayleen Brown’s story is one of humble beginnings, hard work, and passion. Born in Darwin, she travelled up and down the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory with her parents and siblings, following the work. From Wave Hill to Adelaide River, from Pine Creek to Humpty Doo—she was learning all the while.

As a teenager working at the Central Land Council, Rayleen became involved in land rights through activism and by providing administrative support to anthropologists while recording genealogies for Land Claims. Rayleen's passion for preserving knowledge and maintaining a connection to the country grew during this time.

Her passion for cooking and food came from both her mother and father, who were both excellent cooks. Growing up in Rayleen was always helping her mother cook for her five siblings or preparing meals for the local footy club—there was always a big feed to make. Her father was also a great cook, and his marinades for satays were heavenly. Fortunately, her father handwrote all his recipes to pass down to his kin.

Rayleen and Gina’s first catering job was for 100 Warlpiri women at a large meeting in Laramba to support Indigenous teachers. Rayleen and Gina Smith, the co-founders, cooked 300 meals a day out of a domestic kitchen. After the successful meeting, the women thanked the two cooks for their delicious food and suggested they start a cooking business. That’s when the seed was planted, and the journey to create Kungkas Can Cook began. Their first professional job was catering for 1,000 performers at the Yeperenye Festival. They didn’t even own a knife, fork, or plates to serve the food on. That was 24 years ago. Since then, Kungkas Can Cook has diversified into tourism and bush food products, offering locals and tourists alike the opportunity to experience the wonderful flavours of bush food from the desert.