NAIDOC Week is a national celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, history and culture, and runs from July 2-9 2023.
In the early days, Fiona Harrison produced chocolate in a simple way: she'd tip her ingredients into a bowl, and then let it spin in the microwave. The chocolate would melt under the heat of each new rotation – ready to be set in a tray and cut into blocks.
Then she went looking for a stone to cool her chocolate on. "We actually went to a funeral home, to see where we could get a piece of granite," she says.
The DIY chocolatier eventually unearthed a granite slab for resting her just-set chocolate from the bush, which has lots of meaning for Harrison, who is a woman. "That's a real connection," she says.
This was the beginning of her business, which also showcases Indigenous culture in other ways: her blocks are flavoured with such as rainforest lime, wild rosella, Illawarra plum and lillipillies.
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But Harrison's chocolate making has evolved since she began Chocolate on Purpose in 2013.
"Now we've graduated to a chocolate-melting tank," Harrison, who's an aromatherapist by trade, says. "You can temper more chocolate, but it's still literally ladled into the mould."
She also uses a stone bench for her just-tempered chocolate, which didn't require any funeral-home connections to acquire.
While her chocolate is still very much made by hand in the small town of in central NSW, 2020's wildcards – bushfires, floods and COVID-19 – have affected Chocolate On Purpose in challenging and surprising ways. For example, she used to sell her Indigenous confectionery at Millthorpe's markets, which welcomed tourists, but this year's disruptions have made that impossible.
"When the bushfire hit, the road to Sydney was closed regularly and without notice. So people gave up trying to come up here. Business more than halved. The markets weren't very busy," she says. "Then COVID hit and then the markets stopped."
The same thing happened at in Millthorpe, where she also sells Chocolate On Purpose sweets. "When COVID hit, everything dropped off," she says. "So we had to reinvent ourselves."
Harrison improved her online store and tapped into the many social media initiatives that had emerged to support bushfire-affected businesses.
", , , …When they did share our page, our website went ballistic," she says. Then there were the corporate orders from companies wanting to supported COVID-affected retailers.
And after the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of 46-year-old black man George Floyd in the US, Australians stepped up their support of Indigenous businesses. Suddenly, Chocolate On Purpose found itself doing well in the face of such hardship.
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"We're really grateful," says Harrison, who says she's surprised by the increased demand.
"The May Raechelle Art Gallery is asking us for chocolate every two weeks,” says Harrison. Previously, the venue only needed to restock every three months. "So it's a huge difference."
Chocolate On Purpose's range includes white chocolate squares flavoured with along with dark chocolate seasoned with native pepperberry and wild rosella – sweets that have a lingering impact after you savour each block.
"Chocolate On Purpose is more than just confectionery," she says. "This chocolate enables us to have the conversations about the wisdom of First Nations people and their use of Australian botanicals, so they're recognised for their wisdom and appreciated for their culture. We see that as a small cog in the wheel of reconciliation."
She gives the example of her , which Harrison has often used as a conversation starter at markets.
"Traditionally, quandong was used by the Aborigines for [lowering] blood sugar," she'd tell people. "What's ironic is they've now lost their connection with bush foods on the whole. And diabetes is prevalent in Indigenous communities, amongst Indigenous people. So we can use that as a segue to start talking about closing the gap on health issues."
This chocolate enables us to have the conversations about the wisdom of First Nations people.
Native ingredients also have astounding nutritional benefits. Davidson plum, for instance, has the amount of vitamin C in oranges, and Harrison will happily talk about how they can assist people undergoing chemotherapy or experiencing other health issues. “We really have a wealth in our Australian backyard,” she says.
Then there's also the joys of these bush foods' flavours.
What do lillipillies taste like when they're added to her chocolate? "Like mulled wine, like Christmas and Easter," she says. Some people will be reminded of cloves, while others will taste ginger.
The Davidson plum in her white chocolate is "tangy" while the rainforest lime is like a "high note, it hits you straight away", she says.
The pepperberry in her dark chocolate can't be compared to the firepower of chilli or the pungency of garlic, the chocolatier adds. "It's warming on your palate … Normally that's the one we ask people to taste last, because that warming on your palate – that just stays there and it's quite pleasant."
For Harrison, Chocolate On Purpose isn't just about showcasing native ingredients; it's also about supporting the Indigenous communities around Australia who source these wild foods.
"The sad thing is only of Australian botanical food businesses are owned by Indigenous people. There's an organisation called and they've been set up with the intention of increasing the ownership, so that Indigenous people can become the stewards and directors of this industry," she says.
"It's really important that Indigenous people use their wisdom and knowledge of country to grow these plants."
Harrison is also proud of Chocolate On Purpose's achievements. It's been chosen by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council to be part of the Indigenous business incubator.
Then there are the memorable stories of people affected by her products, including the Australian College of Nursing members who've put her "chocolate in care packages for nurses on the frontline fighting COVID".
However, nothing beats the time someone asked, "how many birds are in that bag of chocolate?" upon coming across the wild rosella flavour. The curious customer didn't realise that rosella referred to a native plant and not the colourful parrot of the same name.
It's since led to Harrison rolling with the joke at the markets when describing the wild rosella and pepperberry chocolate. "I'd say, the truth is we strain out the feathers, but we keep the beaks in for crunch."
