Mindy Woods, Kylie Kwong and Adam Liaw to headline Australian Native Food Festival at Carriageworks in September

The Australian Native Food Festival is returning to Carriageworks in Sydney's inner west on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, with organisers preparing for an even larger crowd than last year's surprise turnout of 10,000 people — more than double the expected numbers.

The event, founded by Sharon Winsor, a Weilwan woman and the force behind native food business Indigiearth, will feature a significantly expanded program this year, including cooking demonstrations, workshops, storytelling and a free-entry native food market uniting 32 Indigenous-owned businesses from Cape York to the Kimberley.

A lineup built around Indigenous food knowledge

The cooking demonstration program is headlined by some of the country's most respected voices in Indigenous cuisine. Mindy Woods, a Bundjalung woman and chef-owner of Karkalla on Country, will lead a session focused on native grains alongside Bunurong, Tasmania and Yuin man Uncle Bruce Pascoe. Woods will also sell her native curry powder and macadamia butter — products she grows, harvests and makes on Bundjalung Country in northern NSW and southern Queensland.

Gamilaroi Elder Aunty Beryl Van Oploo OAM and Rayleen Brown, founder of Kungkas Can Cook, are also on the bill, bringing deep cultural knowledge to the demonstration stage. Rayleen Brown will again team up with Karima-Chloé Hazim from Sunday Kitchen for a hands-on cooking class.

Alongside the Indigenous chefs, several well-known culinary figures with a passion for native ingredients will take part. Australian-Chinese chef and cookbook author Kylie Kwong returns for a second year, joining forces with her longtime friend and mentor Aunty Beryl for a conversation exploring family, food and friendship, while preparing dishes from Aunty Beryl's Cookbook — among them stir-fried kangaroo with warrigal greens.

Also appearing are Adam Liaw, Good Food recipe writer and host of The Cook Up, 2024 MasterChef Australia winner Nat Thaipun, and chef and television personality Colin Fassnidge.

Kwong reflects on sixteen years of native ingredients

Kylie Kwong has been incorporating native ingredients into her cooking long before they became fashionable in mainstream kitchens — adding wallaby to san choy bow, filling dumplings with warrigal greens and frying saltbush cakes. She says the landscape has shifted significantly since she began that journey more than a decade and a half ago.

"When I first began using native ingredients 16 years ago, they were not widely understood or used in mainstream kitchens," Kwong said. "Now there is a growing awareness and appreciation of them. But more importantly, a stronger emphasis on cultural respect, proper acknowledgement and supporting Indigenous growers and knowledge holders."

A market stretching from Cape York to the Kimberley

The native food market, free to enter, will showcase products from across the continent — native spices, wild teas, bush jerky, chocolates, native plants and more. For Winsor, the market is as much about human connection as it is about commerce.

"All the businesses are so happy to engage with people and share knowledge and stories of who they are and where they came from," she said.

For those wanting to go beyond browsing, bookable activities include a basket weaving workshop presented by Ngumpie Weaving and a hands-on healing session led by Ngangkari healers.

The festival's broader mission, Winsor explains, is to shine a light on Aboriginal-owned enterprises that are often overlooked in the wider conversation around native foods — particularly women running businesses in regional and remote communities. "So many of the women who live, work and breathe native foods are overlooked in the native food space," she said. "That's one of the reasons why I created this festival, to give women in remote areas a presence and platform in Sydney."

Built on a bigger-than-expected debut

Last year's inaugural event caught Winsor off guard in the best possible way. Anticipating a crowd of four to five thousand, organisers instead welcomed around 10,000 visitors across the two days. The surge in demand caught some vendors short — with at least one Aboriginal business selling out of its entire stock on day one and making a 700-kilometre round trip to restock before the following morning.

Winsor, who was awarded the 2026 Good Food Guide's Bill Granger Trailblazer Award, is clear that the festival is open to everyone. The event is designed as an inclusive celebration of Indigenous culture and food knowledge, with the market's free entry ensuring the widest possible audience can take part.

For those curious about the broader movement to recognise native Australian ingredients, it connects to wider conversations about the push for greater acceptance of ancient and native superfoods in Australian food culture and regulation.

The Australian Native Food Festival runs at Carriageworks, Sydney, on 26–27 September 2026. The market is free to enter; workshops and selected sessions are bookable in advance.