Listen to Cassie Leatham
Humans can only do so much
Listen as Cassie Leatham explains how ants and wattle trees thrive together.
[SINGING IN TAUNGURUNG. CLAPSTICKS PLAYING] In the Daung Wurrung Taungurung language this is our Woriyp, meaning wattle. The beautiful wattle tree also has medicinal saps. The saps are gooey and leak out of the branches. What I used to do, is I used to put all the saps onto a stick and put it near an ant’s nest for the ants to stick onto it for a protein lollipop.
But the saps are also to eaten straight up as a beautiful bush toffee. We’ve got to be careful, we’ve got to be mindful that the ants do have a purpose, very importantly for the wattle. Because what the anst actually do is when the wattle pods open up, the seeds are exposed, they take the arils, what coats around the seed, and they take it down into their chambers and collect it for a food source. When a hot fire goes over Country, it heats up the land and then cracks open the seed. So we need these animals and insects to help regenerate our beautiful trees, native trees. [SINGING IN TAUNGURUNG. CLAPSTICKS PLAYING]