THE PORT ADELAIDE Football Club is teaming with some familiar faces to provide its Aboriginal AFL Academies with yoghurt made from one of the world’s richest sources of Vitamin C.

Power Community Limited will supply to its Aboriginal AFL Academy and its Women’s Aboriginal AFL Academy with the Kakadu Plum Yoghurt made by indigenous bushfood company Something Wild Australia, which is headed up by former Power players Daniel Motlop and Danyle Pearce and current star Steven Motlop.

Something Wild has partnered with Fleurieu Milk Company with the support of the Indigenous Land Corporation to develop the new range.

The plums are harvested annually by women from the Palngun Wurnangat Aboriginal Corporation in the Wadeye region of the Northern Territory.

Aboriginal people in the Territory have been eating the plums for thousands of years because it has a range of uses as a health additive, preservative and flavour enhancer.

“Kakadu plums are unique to northern Australia and have one of the highest known concentrations of Vitamin C in the world,” Daniel Motlop said while launching the product at Port Adelaide’s Alberton headquarters on Thursday.

“It actually has 55 times the Vitamin C concentration of an orange so we were really excited to actually put it into a yoghurt with the Fleurieu Milk guys.

“We’re very excited about the new products we’ve created, and we’re glad to have the opportunity to work with the women from Wadeye community to secure a sustainable way to supply the fruit.”

Former Power player Marlon Motlop, now an Aboriginal Programs Coordinator at Port Adelaide said the club was happy to support a proud South Australian company.

“We’re really rapt so support a local indigenous business like Something Wild, not just because of the family and club connection, but because we believe in what they’re doing - creating sustainable employment and also economic growth in Aboriginal communities,” he said.

“Our Women’s Aboriginal AFL Academy have gone through about four boxes of the yoghurt in the last month and the staff love it too, so we’re proud to be a part of this partnership.”

Seven ladies from Wadeye travelled down to Adelaide to be present for the launch.

Among them was the Chairperson of the Palngun Wurnangat Aboriginal Corporation, Margaret Perdjert who said her parents had passed down their cultural knowledge of the plums.

“We call it ‘mi mirrarl’, it’s like a medicine, it’s good for colds,” she said.

“We harvest the fruit around Easter time, some we pick and others we have to get the young fellas to shake the trees so they fall down from the top.

“Then we bring them back to the women’s centre at Wadeye and sort and weigh them.”

Indigenous Land Corporation Chairman Eddie Fry said the ILC has a strategic focus on niche Indigenous products such as bushfoods to provide Aboriginal people with the opportunity to develop sustainable land-based businesses.

“This collaboration between Wadeye Aboriginal Community, Something Wild Australia, and Fluerieu Milk Company is a great example of how Aboriginal communities can combine their landholdings with their ecological knowledge and commercialise them to create products, uniquely from the Indigenous Estate,” he said.

Something Wild Australia and Fleurieu Milk Company intend to produce 180,000 tubs of Kakadu plum yoghurt, which is available at their stalls in the Adelaide Central Markets, to test the response to the new product.

They will also produce Muntrie, Davidson Plum and Quandong yoghurt.

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