Happy International Women’s Day!

In my years as a photographer, I have had the honor of photographing inspiring and spirited women from all over the world, from India, Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, Tibet, the USA, France, Brazil, Colombia, and other countries. I am grateful for my photographic journeys for bringing me closer to these women who have not only served as great sources of inspiration but also been teachers of important life lessons. In a world where female qualities are often looked down upon, they have reminded me time and again what an honor it is to be a woman.  

Women have had few leaders to follow in their footsteps. History, thus far, has shared more stories of war and male leaders than of women gathering. Most indigenous stories were oral, passed down from one generation to the next through stories and time spent with the elders. Now, as we move away from the land we were born on, that old way of passing traditional knowledge is being lost. Many women don't get to grow up with their grandmothers. Even if they do, it’s not the same. Born in a big city, away from rooted, indigenous women, I greatly struggled with my own understanding of the essence of a woman for a big part of my life. And I am thankful to my photographic journeys to remote regions of the world. The indigenous women took me in, fed me, taught me, and just being in their presence was a spiritual experience for me.

Women don't need to be like men to thrive in this world, this we all understand, but in the fight for rights, we have had to let go of the very gifts that were inherently ours to bring to the world. We continue to struggle with the mixed signals that the patriarchy brings upon us. 

 Jungian psychologist, mythopoetic author, poet, and women's movement figure, Marion Jean Woodman (1928 – 2018) said:

“The Crone has been missing from our culture for so long that many women, particularly young girls, know nothing of her tutelage. Young girls in our society are not initiated by older women into womanhood with its accompanying dignity and power. Without the Crone, the task of belonging to oneself, of being a whole person, is virtually impossible.” 

When separated from communities, their tribe, and their grandmothers, who do they turn to to get the knowledge and wisdom of and for a woman? For this reason, I am very grateful for the female teachers who have come in my path and women authors who make these truths accessible to all.

I came across this passage last night in the most unexpected book: Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn, a bestselling book that draws the reader deep into the world of an Indian elder, Dan. The book has transformed the lives of millions of people around the world, starting with people (and even the land!) across the US nation, the Maoris and their white compatriots in New Zealand, people and Roman Catholic priests in South America, guards in the toughest penitentiaries in America, and countless others. The following words were shared nonchalantly with the author by Dan’s granddaughter, Dannie when he asked her about violence toward women on reservations. And what she says is so profound, I can’t help but share it. There are lessons in there.

“If honor had mattered, they would have won and we would still be strong and healthy as a people. But honor didn’t matter. Numbers mattered. They fought and lost. Now they still try to fight, like my grandpa is doing, with words. But they are the defeated. It was taken from them. Everything. Your people did it. That’s the way it was planned, and it worked. You took their spirits and left them with shame.

“But no one paid any attention to us women. We kept things alive in our hearts and hands.” She smiled knowingly and looked out over the rolling landscape, like a person caressing a secret in her mind. “They ignored us. We were just women. But we were always the ones to keep the culture alive. That was our job, as women and mothers. It always has been. The men can’t hunt buffalo anymore. But we can still cook and sew and practice the old ways. We can still feed the old people and make their days warm. We can teach the children. Our men may be defeated, but our women’s hearts are still strong.

“This is what I mean about it being our time — the Indian woman. We have always been at the center. The Indian family has been like a circle, and the woman has been at the center. White families have been like lines, with the men standing in front. That’s why white women haven’t been able to understand us. They talk about sisterhood and liberation, but their struggle is not our struggle. We don’t need to get free. We need to free our men. Things are different for us. We know who we are. We are mothers. We are the bearers of our race. It gives us status to do other things. We are honored for what we are. If our men are treating us poorly, it is because they are shamed. Why should we want to set ourselves against them and call that liberation? Until they are free in their hearts again, none of us Indian people will be free.

“We women can go out and get a job with the wasichu, and we’re still okay. We can come home at night and not feel like we’ve sold our skin. We are still honored.

“But the men can’t. If they go to the wasichu, they are shamed, even though they won’t say it. The only way to lose that shame is to give up their blood and become white. They don’t want to do that. But if they stay on the reservations, among their people, there is no work. And where there is no work they can’t provide for their families. When they can’t provide for their families they leave, or drink, or get angry. Maybe all of those. They get mad at us, even while they love us.

“All you see is the violence and the alcohol. All the white women see is the silence and the bruises. What we see is a broken circle, and we’re going to make it whole. This isn’t about men and women. This is about our whole culture and our ancestors and our children. White people always think of themselves first, and how to get your individual rights. We don’t. We think about the culture and how to make the people strong within it. That’s our job. That’s why it’s our turn, now.”

RECOMMENDED READING

SOME MORE QUOTES FOR INSPIRATION

"The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way." "Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves.".
— Betty Friedan 

“Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me. Insisting on this story was a form of mind control, but for the most part, it worked. Every time I heard a sound of unknown origin or felt something horrible cohering in my imagination, I pushed it away. I simply did not let myself become afraid. Fear begets fear. Power begets power.” 
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail 

“When men imagine a female uprising, they imagine a world in which women rule men as men have ruled women.” 
― Sally Kempton, Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience

“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we'll all be better off for it.” 
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 “Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can't cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It's just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal.” 
― Cheryl Strayed