Among the peoples of central Australia (Anangu, Yankunytjatjara, from whom Lowitja came), meals are not divided into starter/main/dessert but between *kuka* (hunted meat — kangaroo, emu, lizard) and *mai* (foraged foods — seeds, desert fruits, roots). Cooking is often done directly on the coals and hot sand, and everything is shared in a circle, sitting on the ground. The meal follows the season and what the land offers, not a fixed menu.

The quandong (*Santalum acuminatum*), a small red desert peach with a tart flavor, is the sweet emblem of central Australia; its cooking, like that of kangaroo, is traditionally done in a pit of coals and sand — the ground oven. It is the flavor and the gesture that Lowitja rediscovered at Indulkana.