‘Humpy’ is an Aboriginal word for ‘shelter’, and Redfern’s new Tin Humpy Aboriginal cafe is the perfect cosy shelter from the bustle of busy Redfern outside. Decorated in calming blue and green tones, there are cascading pot plants and there’s gorgeous indigenous art on the walls. Even better, the Tin Humpy specialises in hand-made pastries such as pistachio-encrusted polenta cakes, salted-caramel cakes and fire-engine-red, domed strawberry cheesecakes.
But owner and pastry chef Yvette Lever was not always concocting sweet treats in the middle of the city. A Bundjalung woman from the Tweed Heads area, Yvette was living close to the land in north coast New South Wales. ‘I was living the alternative lifestyle,’ she told Lonely Planet, ‘milking cows, growing my own veggies.’
The Tin Humpy in Sydney. Image by Monique Perrin
She gave it up 17 years ago to move to Sydney, and began to work steadily toward her dream of opening a cafe. After ten years working in child care, she worked at the flourishing Grounds of Alexandria for three years where she learned baking, pastry-making and other tricks of the trade, while completing qualifications in pastry-making and small business.
Now, at 57, it seems her hard work has paid off. The cafe she opened in mid-2018 is bright and welcoming, and buzzing with chatty patrons. Currently Yvette is experimenting with her recipes. ‘I’m trying to learn more, to put more Australian flavours into the pastries,’ she said. She is making jams with indigenous plants, and tweaking the classic lemon-meringue pie to make it a lemon-myrtle-meringue pie.
Grounds of Alexandria founders Ramsey Choker and Jack Hanna have provided support and advice to Yvette on her journey, as has Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo, an elder, educator and expert in native foods who teaches hospitality skills to indigenous kids. Yvette is also training young people in her family and the community to work at the cafe and hopes her experiences will inspire them to ‘have a go, take a chance’.
‘For me, it’s about teaching the kids that it doesn’t matter what age you are, if you stick to your dreams you can make them come true. It’s hard work, but you can make it happen,’ she said. ‘Especially for our indigenous kids, they need to know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel – if you never give up.’
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