He braves the thick rugged forest of the Rupununi, crosses swamps and climbs savannahs, sometimes all in the scorching blaze of the sun to reach the Rupununi River just to have that feeling of accomplishment when his bait is swallowed by the mouth of a hungry fish. To a regular city lad, the daily routine of this Makusi teen would seem tedious in addition to being monotonous as he does it every day of the week. To 15-year-old Damion Bowen of Region 9

(Lethem), fishing is not only an everyday chore, but the way of life for his family. He started at the age of 6.

The peering of the sun’s light into the cracks of the walls of his modest home, serves as an indication that it is time to get up, time to brave the day’s weather and commence his two-hour journey to the Rupununi River. “We would trek through the forest and when we get there, the canoe is there so we would start fishing,” he revealed. “The journey sometimes is rough but I was doing it since I was six years’ old. My grandfather taught me to fish as he did with everyone else in my family.”

Like a housewife would go through the various meats in her refrigerator as she decides what to cook, Damion’s mother’s refrigerator can be likened to the river where he sorts the waves of the water for the right fish to complement their meal of tumapot, cassava bread, rice or farine. Will it be lukanani today or maybe perai? He may not know until he raises his bait to confront the wiggling fish. “Sometimes we would catch lukanani sometimes arawana or Haimara and we would take it home to eat it, every day,” Damion said with a shy bend of the head.

Since his home is not equipped with refrigerators, his mother and sisters would salt the fish in an effort to preserve it and then she would sell the surplus. “When you salt it, it would keep for over a month and we would sell it but every day we would catch to eat,” a smiling Damion revealed.

Dreams big
Despite only practicing subsistence fishing now, the youngster has dreams of one day owning his own fishing business in his village of 260 residents. With the absence of this currently, he believes that he can make a difference and relieve other youths of the burden of fishing every day. Though he recently completed his secondary education in Rupununi, Damion has no plans of furthering his studies but taking a direct path in the fishing industry.

He recently took a leap of faith and journeyed to the community of Rock Stone in Region 10 to participate in the ‘fish catching’ competition at the Rock Stone Fish Festival. Though he had his eyes on copping the winning cash prize, he received a trophy for his efforts. “I did it also for the experience; it was a good experience for me because it was my first fishing competition. We went out into the Essequibo River around 8 AM and returned with a huge catch of Lukananis that were sold after the competition.”

This young Makusi fisherman also enjoys playing cricket and football with his friends but nothing beats taking a swim across the river to see who would emerge winner. He is satisfied with his village life and said that his few visits to the city never caused him to want to leave for a more civilized life. Every day he will get up and trek the forest to the river for as longs as he has to feed his family of 10,” Damion said.