© Nihad Nino Pušija

Name: Beate W.
Mother tongue: German
Occupation: European Ethnologist
My object: sheep bell
My story about it:
When I was a student, I spent many weeks and months in Greece. I carried out a research on the language and culture of the Aromanians who speak a Romanian dialect. Until today, some of them still commute between winter pastures in the lowlands and summer pastures in the highlands, together with their herds of sheep and goats.
I will never forget the conversations with the shepherds. Simple and convincingly as it is, their philosophy of life refreshingly balances my “top-heavy” job. From time immemorial, their way of life has been in keeping with nature. Long before the birth of Green Parties, it was a convincing way of ecological living. To me, the bell on the leather strap is a continuous reminder; it brings me back to the truly important things in life.