Take a seat at a footpath table outside Nowra’s Blak Cede café and it’s quickly clear how very popular this groundbreaking Indigenous-run eatery is.
Nowra, on the New South Wales south coast, is a thriving regional city, not a country town, but Blak Cede has that feel of a small-town community favourite.
, to give it it’s full and carefully chosen title, opened in April this year, a women-led social enterprise established by the South Coast Women’s Health and Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation, to provide training and employment opportunities to Aboriginal women from the Shoalhaven area, while highlighting Aboriginal knowledge, beliefs and experiences.
Nowra's Blak Cede cafe. Credit: Alicia and Callum Birch / Smiling Sun
"For example, we do not have beef on the menu as a statement about the colonial origins of the beef industry, which was forged on the backs of Aboriginal peoples right across this land. Cattle have desecrated the Australian environment and they have a massive carbon footprint, so we chose to support other industries which are more sustainable, environmentally less impactful, traditional and local. As we have created a space for truth telling, it is an opportunity for people to engage in active anti-racism and imperfect ally work.”
An award-winning cafe on the South Coast
Blak Cede has won several awards, including a regional NAIDOC Award and just this month, best coffee in the Shoalhaven. And only six months in, the café is so popular that plans are underway to expand into a next-door shop.
Café manager Melanie Williams, from the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community in the Yuin nation, who has been working at Blak Cede since it opened, says the welcome from the Nowra community has been fantastic.
“We created Blak Cede to empower young Koori women from the Shoalhaven area on the south coast to lead self-determined lives. We created this beautiful welcoming space for not only our Aboriginal community, but the wider community also. And it has been an amazing journey.”
Maara cakes at Blak Cede. Credit: Katie Rivers / Visit Shoalhaven
Even the coffee blend was carefully created, working with supplier Daily Grind, to match the menu.
“We have an extremely passionate young Koori man from the community who's leading the barista side of things, teaching these young women the right way. And people are willing to wait [when it’s busy] because they know what they’re going to get. It's a nice, beautiful, strong coffee, so it complements the Indigenous flavours as well, it was purposely done,” Williams explains.
Supporting other Indigenous businesses
The cafe also makes it a point to collaborate with other Indigenous-owned businesses, such as Yaru Water, a social enterprise based in Uki, New Soth Wales that supplies their mineral water.
“We are proud to stock their water range as they are the first Indigenous water company and a social enterprise that tells an important cultural story, whilst creating better health outcomes for Indigenous communities via the Yaru Foundation,” the team tells us. “Because we limit the use of sugar in our cafe as a response to the detrimental impact sugar has had on our communities since its introduction, such as diabetes and heart disease, among so many other health issues – the flavoured sparkling mineral waters are a popular alternative to soft drinks. We also support many other Blak businesses, such as Native Botanicals, Native Foodways, LORE Australia, and Koori artists and jewellery makes.”
Inside Nowra's Blak Cede cafe. Credit: Alicia and Callum Birch / Smiling Sun
“We often get comments from mob walking past the cafe of how proud they feel when they hear the music playing from the outdoor speakers,” Williams says.
Good music, a welcoming space, great food, a supportive workplace for women, and a mission to champion other Indigenous businesses - Blak Cede has so many layers within its identity. And with the planned expansion, there will be more room for visitors to sit down to cafe's delicious, nourishing nyully (‘food’ in the Dharawal language).
