Leonie Norrington was born in Darwin, the third of nine children, and grew up at Barunga Aboriginal community, south of Katherine.
‘We were looked after by Clare, who “grew us up properly”: teaching us bush tucker, hunting, and respect for sacred places and important people.We were real bush kids, speaking Aboriginal English and Kriol fluently. Even now, when I get really worked up about something, I go back to Aboriginal English.
I have been influenced by two forms of spirituality. My mum’s brand of Irish Catholicism, with its emphasis on the magic of the world and the spiritual way of being in it; and Clare’s strict Aboriginal spirituality, with its rigid rules and laws. We all grew up with great respect for the spirits of the land and sacred places.'
In the early 1970s Leonie returned with her family to Darwin and high school.
‘It was a bit of a shock to go from Barunga to a strict Catholic school. But we lived on the outskirts of town with lots of other large Catholic, Greek and Aboriginal families, and we all hung out together and looked after each other. I failed miserably at school and escaped into a hairdressing apprenticeship. That was great fun.
I met my husband when he came to Darwin from Zimbabwe to work after Cyclone Tracy. We have three beautiful sons. I worked as a farmhand, a nurseryperson and a fruit picker. Then when I was in my thirties I went back to school to do Year 12 and I discovered I could write. My imagination has always got me into trouble—the difference between fact and fiction is still not very clear to me today—but now I’ve found a use for it, I love it.
I started writing for children when my grandson Sean was born. I wanted to show him that Aboriginal people and white people can and do live together in respect and trust, despite their different cultural traditions.'
Leonie works full-time as a journalist and writer. Her published books include Woman’s Talk, a collection of conversations with Territory women; Under the Mango Tree, a collection of stories involving elderly Indigenous people; and Tropical Food Gardens, a book about growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in northern Australia.
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