Banana Tree Gang

Banana Tree Gang 🌴🍌 are walking for WAGEC so women and children can walk away from violence.

Our name is silly and playful, but we're not here to play on the issue of gender-based violence. The group name also comes from a personal story of Amanda's and Nang Tani (a South-east Asian ghost known to be benevolent, except to abusive men).

Growing up, Amanda knew her mum loved khao tom; a delicious Laotian and Thai dessert made of sticky rice and fillings such as banana and/or red beans and coconut milk, wrapped and steamed-cooked in banana leaves. However, it was difficult to find banana leaves due to the lack of Asian grocery stores on the Central Coast at the time.

Amanda's mum really wanted to grow a banana tree in her backyard so that she could make khao tom, but every time she mentioned it to Amanda's dad, Amanda's dad would become aggressive and yell at them about the "banana tree ghost".

His reaction didn't match the gentleness of her request, so Amanda always wondered why he seemed so triggered... Until one day, Amanda found out Nang Tani, the banana tree ghost, only haunted men who committed wicked deeds such as hitting their wives. So she brought this up with her dad and told him, "if you're not abusive to your wife, you'd have nothing to worry about."

Help us stop the cycle of violence by walking with us/and or donating to our page.