The traditional knowledge of the Aboriginal people in Australia, the oldest living culture in the world, is commercially showcased in a gin that has a citrus flavor from bearing green ants and has already won international awards in the world of spirits.
Green ants (Rhytidoponera metallica), rich in protein and with medicinal properties, are collected by the family of former rugby player Daniel Motlop from the land of the Larrakia people, in Australia’s Northern Territory, to make the Green Ant gin, which is seen in their bottles on these insects.
“We were the first company to market green ants,” Daniel Motlop, founder of the Green Ant Gin brand, sold in Australian liquor stores, told the Australian Foreign Press Association in Adelaide, south.
The green ants, which retail for around 650 Australian dollars (494 US dollars or 420 euros) per kilo, add lime and coriander flavor to the Green Ant gin, which won the gold medal in the Spirits Competition San Francisco 2018.
The fame of these Australian endemic insects has also reached haute cuisine from the hand of Danish chef Rene Redzepi of restaurant Noma, considered one of the best in the world and who used them to decorate mango ice cream sandwiches and give it that spicy citrus flavor. .
RESPECT FOR NATURE
The demand for green ants has not led the family of Daniel Motlop, a former Australian ruby player and owner of the Something Wild company that markets Aboriginal gastronomic products, to put commercial interests above the need to protect traditional practices and the environment. to set.
For this reason, the ant mounds collected in the forests of the Australian north are placed in refrigerators to stun them and then force the workers to leave with heat stroke.
“But we don’t catch the grubs or the queen,” said Motlop at his popular booth at Adelaide City Central Market, insisting that his company not only create jobs for its community, but also respect nature, which supplies 60,000 people with food. and provides medicines. years to the indigenous people of this country.
TRADITION IS NOT LOST
Sustainability is a key element for the Larrakia, one of the First Nations peoples who traditionally own an area of northern Australia that includes the city of Darwin.
The Larrakia are ruled by seven seasons that mark their food-gathering activities, many of which are performed exclusively by men or women, who are also governed by a complex system that gives balance and harmony to their world.
This dual system called ‘yirritja-dhuwa’ is similar to the concept of Asian ‘yin yang’ and includes’ basically everything from stars, sun, people, language groups, animals, fruits. They are yirritja-dhuwa. And it tells us what we can collect, ” explains Motlop.
“Crocodiles, for example, are ‘yirritja’ animals. I am a ‘yittirja’ man and that keeps us from eating them to protect them,” added the native businessman explaining this complex kinship and sustainability system. which in that area translates into eight clans “yirritja” and eight “chuwa”.
THE BAN ON ALCOHOL
But the First Nations of Australia’s harmony, broken by colonization, has been lost in the modern lives of several indigenous communities where the Australian government has banned the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages and where Green Ant gin is inaccessible.
Authorities justify this “dry law” in some Aboriginal areas to prevent domestic violence and alcoholism, although some activists describe the measure as patronizing and fueling negative stereotypes.
“It’s a thorny issue (aboriginal alcoholism), but we’re trying to overcome it in Australia, it’s a stereotype,” said the former rugby player, who, after leaving professional sport, devoted himself to this business with which he helped his family. financially helps. and its community.