Leewana

=Leewana=

My name is Leewana. I live with my family and the rest of the tribe in Queensland, Australia. Our tribe is called The Gandagara. I live together with my mom, dad, one sister, three brothers and my grandmother. Our people are nomads, which means we don’t live on the same place all the time, we move around. At this time we are on our way to our summer camp. I also have an older sister, but she is married and living with her husband. The tribe is like my family; we protect and care for each other just like a big family. The people in my tribe work for the whole tribe and not for themselves and their families. The other women’s job is to go around and collect berries, fruit, and other raw materials to cook with. We also have the responsibility to make the food and we are the ones who work on the tribes clothes. My job is to collect berries and fruit in the bush around our camp. And sometimes I cook. It is my mom who has taught me that. She is one of the best cooks in the tribe; her food is just absolutely wonderful. We have old traditions when it comes to the food, the recipes travels far back in time. We eat a lot of kangaroo meat, and we also eat larvas and other insects. My favourite is a kind of kangaroo soup when you have little bits of kangaroo meat and fry it, then we put it in a bowl of a sauce full of vegetables and lots of roots. I’m not sure what the sauce is made of, but it’s extremely good! Men and women have different jobs in our tribe, as I have told you earlier, the women cook, and collect food, while the men do the more masculine work like hunting, fishing and they also protect the rest of the tribe from other tribes or dangerous animals. My father and my brothers are often gone for days in the bush hunting. They hunt kangaroo’s, birds and lots of other animals. When I was younger I always wanted to go with them, but I was always told I was too little or something like that. Even though it’s not the women’s job to hunt, my dad has taught me how to use the boomerang to catch birds. It’s our little secret. My mom doesn’t really like that my father is teaching me things like that, but he teaches me anyway. Every name has its meaning, and my name means wind. My grandmother was the one who named me, and she chose Leewana for a special reason. She told me that it is a very unique name and not for every girl. I have to carry it with pride and understanding, knowing the burden of it, and that powerful women have worn this name. They were much like winds, and she could easily see that I was one of them, a Leewana. Because you can feel when it’s brewing up to storm, and when the gentle puff of wind is telling you that the spring is near. You always sense how the wind feels, much like me, and much like them. Names are very important to us, your name reflects how you are as a person and often you get a new name when you get older. It is the elder in the tribe who gives you the new name and it is built on how your personality is. My family is very important to me, especially my sister Kiah. She is one year older than me and she is more like a friend then a sister. Next summer she is going to get married to a really kind boy in our tribe. I really wish her everything well, but I’m afraid I will miss her too much. Even if she still will be a big part of my life it will never be the same. I don’t think I want to get married. Then I have to leave my family and that would just be too hard. Almost every girl in our tribe gets married when they are about 16 or 17 years old, and since I’m only 15 I still have some time to decide. But still, it might be nice to get married and have kids. When I see how happy my mom and dad are, a part of me is hoping to have the same as them some day, sometime in the future. Who knows what the future will bring? Every night we gather around the fireplace, we sing, dance and tell stories. The best storyteller is my grandmother. She tells with such enthusiasm and insight that you just must listen. I can sit and listen to her hour after hour. She tells about the moonlight like it is the most mysterious and wonderful thing on earth. In her eyes the kangaroo is the smartest animal ever lived. She can make a stone interesting. Telling stories is an important part of our traditions and our history. This is a thing our people have always been doing. So this is my life. The life I know and love. The life I wouldn’t change for a thing.