Australia’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion initially exposed the tragic trend, describing Vegemite as a “precursor to misery” in many communities, where women were beaten and children neglected.
Mr Scullion described the iconic food as a “precursor to misery”, and pointed out that children in some communities were too hung over to go to school after drinking moonshine made with the concentrated yeast extract, reported The Sunday Mail.
News agencies went into a frenzy as the debate raged on whether or not Vegemite should be banned from Aboriginal “dry stations”, where alcohol had already been banned due to the scale of problems brought on by booze.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, criticised for many policies and now deposed from office, made his stance clear: “The last thing I want to see is a Vegemite watch going on, because Vegemite, quite properly, is for most people a reasonably nutritious spread on your morning toast or on your sandwiches.”
Thankfully, days later, Vegemite manufacturer American conglomerate Mondelez International scientifically dismissed the possibility that “bathtubs of home brew” could be made using Vegemite.
“The autolysis process and subsequent yeast processing in the manufacture of Vegemite kills the yeast,” explained Mondelez spokesperson, Sandra Dal Maso said in a statement.
“As sugar and active yeast are two elements required in the brewing process, Vegemite cannot be fermented into alcohol,” she added.
But by that time the news had spread: Australia’s indigenous people suffer greatly at the hands of alcohol abuse.
According to a study by Scott Wilson, of the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council of South Australia, aboriginals suffer from a significantly higher rate of alcohol abuse than any other demographic in the ethnically diverse country. In short, indigenous Australians are up to eight times more likely to die due to alcohol than their peers.
The remote community at the centre of the Vegemite scare was on Mornington Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. That remote community is apparently no different. Senator Scullion said he was told of the problem there during a trip there in May.
Dr Berry Zondag of the Junkuri Laka Wellesley Islands Aboriginal Law, Justice and Governance Association, told the BBC that “alcohol-management plans” in action at the community were pushing problem drinking underground. To get around the government’s booze ban, islanders instead turned to home brews.
Sadly, and ironically, the Mornington Island community is one of 19 in Queensland where the state government has imposed alcohol restrictions on the grounds of improving people’s health.
As alcohol can be made from just about any food containing sugar and the right type of yeast, Dr Zondag is calling for individual alcohol licences to be issued with strict behavioural conditions attached.
What would be banned next, he asks: “Fruit juice? Sugar? Even Water? There are much more profound, serious questions”, he told the BBC.
Meanwhile, John Boffa of the Northern Territory-based People’s Alcohol Action Coalition said that whatever solution was deemed appropriate for Mornington Island situation should not be considered a ‘final solution’.
“We’re talking about an isolated problem in a couple of communities around a very
large nation, and a nation where there is a very large number of Aboriginal communities, and every community is different,” he said.
‘Through the looking glass’ is a monthly column in which we will explore different cultural elements through various eyes around Phuket. If you have a suggestion or an idea please send it through to editor@classactmedia.co.th