The traditional knowledge of the aboriginal people of Australia, the oldest living culture on the planet, is commercially presented in a gin that has a citrus flavor from the transport of green ants and has already won international awards in the spirit world.
Green ants (Rhytidoponera metallica), rich in protein and medicinal properties, are collected by the family of former rugby player Daniel Motlop on the lands of the people of Larrakia, in northern Australia, to make Green Ant gin, which can be seen inside their bottles to these insects.
“We were the first company to start selling green ants,” said Daniel Motlop, founder of the Green Ant Gin brand, which is sold in Australian beverage stores to the Australian Foreign Press Association in Adelaide (south).
The green ants, which are sold for about A $ 650 (US $ 494 or € 420) per kilogram, add the aroma of lime and coriander to Green Ant gin, which received the gold medal at the 2018 San Francisco Spirit Drink Contest.
The fame of these endemic Australian insects reached the high kitchen from the hand of the Danish chef Rene Redzepi from the Noma restaurant, considered one of the best in the world and who used them to decorate mango ice cream sandwiches and give it that citrus flavor. .
RESPECT FOR NATURE
The demand for green ants did not cause the family of Daniel Motlop, a former Australian rubgy player and owner of the Something Wild company that sells Aboriginal gastronomic products, to put commercial interests before the need to protect traditional practices and the environment.
For this reason, the ant hills that are collected from the forests of northern Australia are placed in refrigerators to numb them and then force the workers to leave with a heat stroke.
“But we don’t catch the larvae or the queen,” Motlop said at his popular booth in central Adelaide Square, insisting that his company not only creates jobs for its community, but also respects nature, which provides food and medicine for 60,000 years to the indigenous people of this country.
TRADITION IS NOT LOST
Sustainability is a key element for Larrakia, one of the peoples of the first nations that traditionally own an area of northern Australia, which includes the city of Darwin.
Larrakia is ruled by seven seasons that mark their food gathering activities, many of which are conducted exclusively by men or women, which is also governed by a complex system that gives them balance and harmony in the world.
This dual system called “yirritja-dhuwa” is similar to the concept of Asian “yin yang” and includes “virtually anything from stars, sun, people, language groups, animals, fruits. Sunt yirritja-dhuwa. And it tells us what we can collect, “Motlop explained.
“For example, crocodiles are ‘yirritja’ animals. They are a ‘yittirja’ man and that prevents us from eating them to protect them,” the aboriginal businessman added when he explained this complex system of kinship and durability which translates into eight in that area. “yirritja” and eight “chuwa” clans.
PROHIBITION OF ALCOHOL
But the harmony of Australia’s first nations, which was fractured by colonization, has been lost in the modern lives of many Indigenous communities where the Australian government has banned the sale and consumption of alcohol and where Green Ant gin is inaccessible.
Authorities justify this “dry law” in some Aboriginal territories to prevent domestic violence and alcoholism, although some activists describe the measure as paternalistic and negative stereotypes.
“It’s a thorny issue (Aboriginal alcoholism), but we’re trying to get over it in Australia, it’s a stereotype,” said the former rugby player, who after leaving professional sport dedicated himself to this business that helps his family financially and his community.