This year Nyirrunggulung-RISE again got involved in the Mango Pick at Katherine Research Station in the Northern Territory.
Over a couple of weeks, many people spent many hours working hard to bring in the harvest. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who came along to be part of 2024 Mango Pick.
The best part? Because the Research Station doesn’t sell the fruit from its orchard, we got to share hundreds of mangoes with local people.
We sent mangoes out to schools, to aged care centres and women’s shelters, to crèches, and other community-led organisations. Of course, we didn’t forget the local police and ambos.
Working with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries meant it was more than a simple harvest.
It’s part of a long-term research trial – improving our mango knowledge, growth patterns and other information.
The picking team learned about bio security – checking for pests and diseases, then reporting back. This knowledge will be shared with mango farmers across Australia to create more productive harvests in the future.
Plus, we had help from different groups who came along to pick and learn.
For example, students from Wugularr School learned you have to wash mangoes immediately so the sap doesn’t burn. They took boxes of mangoes home to their families and communities.
We teamed up with My CDP Ngukarr to share mangoes and stories, as well as learn about staying hydrated and sun-safe as temperatures soar in Northern Australia.
uLaunch, another AKG business, even got in on the fun joining our Wugularr, Barunga and Binjari teams to carry on picking.
The 2024 Mango Pick also made the news in the National Indigenous Times! You can read the story here.
