Kiah

The aboriginal tribe: The story of an aboriginal tribe members life:  Arranged marriage? My name is Kiah, I am one of the wives in a aboriginal tribe. My husband is Allambee and we have been together for 4 years now. I am 23 years and pregnant with my first child. Actually I am not born in this tribe. My relatives are from the neighbour tribe, where I was born.

The aboriginal men choose a woman from another tribe, and my husband chose me. According to tradition, he is older than me. He is my first husband, but I suppose I will get one more after the birth of our first child. Being a mother will give me a higher status in the tribe.

During the days I gather food, take care of other children and of course the elderly together with other women of the tribe. In secret places in the woods we find fruit, vegetables and roots. We also gather some nuts, herbs, eggs, honey and some smaller animals like snakes and lizards. The men hunt to supply the tribe with meat. Emu and kangaroos are the favourite prey. Only on rare occasions the men are successful in killing an Emu or a kangaroo, because they are hard to catch. But when they manage to bring such high class meat, we women make some wonderful meals. Our kids join us in the preparation in order to learn everything we know at a very young age. Independently they try many things to get accustomed to bush survival. This is important because anything can happen to us grownups and there will be no one to take care of the youngsters. I am very excited about the birth of my first child, which will take place very soon. I don’t know how long I have been pregnant, but tomorrow I am going to speak with our healer. He is going to check with the spirits and find out when I am going to give birth. Maybe he can see if it is a boy or a girl.

Five or six years ago, before I was married, I wanted to get away from the tribe I grew up in. I wanted to explore the rest of the world. However, the other members of the tribe wouldn’t let go of any aboriginal girl and especially not me. - You have all you need here, they told me. I had to stay and get married to that man who chose me. At the time I hated Allambee, he was way to old for me and was kind of arrogant in my opinion. Now we get along better and I am starting to like him. My firstborn is Allambee`s first child too and I know he is nervous that something can go wrong. He is looking forward to get it over with.

Allambee is a 40 years old aboriginal man. He isn’t certain of his exact age, but it is believed that he is around 40. At present, I am going to help my little sister getting ready for her wedding. She is 21 and is going to be married for the second time. She has two little cute kids with an older man. She does not like him anymore, because he was not nice to her or to their children. In the future she is looking forward to spend time with a different and younger man. I envy her a little bit because in my thoughts I want to be in a similar position. He is her great love and she is his. Falling in love with a man of my own age is a distant dream. The only reason she wanted to have children with her first husband was to obtain acceptance to marry a second man.

In our tribe it is the men which are free to choose a woman when they feel ready for marriage. My sister was therefore very lucky that the man she loved chose her. Before every marriage we aborigines have a feast singing and dancing like old tradition tell us to. It is always fun watching the guys dance. I hope I will see many talented male dancers, because I have started to think what my second husband should be like. I can’t decide, but maybe I can get a nice guy to fall in love with me. Since we live in a costal area, we stay in the same area the year around. I am so glad we don’t live in desert areas. I have heard the tribes living in such surroundings have to move a lot, looking for food and water. On one occasion our tribe went on a long journey hunting for emus. The women had to carry all the provisions to give the men opportunity to hunt.

Now I am going to talk to my sister about her wedding. She is sitting around a fire peeling some nuts. Keewana looks pretty sad, and I asked her what’s wrong? She told me that even if her new husband is so pleasant, charming, attractive and has other characteristics that she cannot find words for, she can’t marry him. Keewana has spoken to one of the elderly in the tribe which is one of the wise, respected with high status. He told her that she has been badly chosen and that she is in need of an older man with more wisdom and experience. Even when she proclaimed her feelings he was still reluctant to give acceptance to her second marriage. In our tribe to persons that are deeply in love can get married, but only with the elderly acceptance. In our history I think it is two aboriginals tribe members that has got married without acceptance. But they were thrown out of the tribe and is not to be spoken about. Therefore didn’t my sister and her love get married.

I wanted my sister to be happy with the man she loved. My hunch is that the elderly meant that such love would inflict on her judgement. Furthermore, they thought she would want no contact with her former husband. I suppose the line of thought may be correct. Who would choose a man out of hatred instead of love?

Sources: https://files.itslearning.com/data/rkk/11626/urfolkningweb/Aboriginee.html