Ain't I a Woman? Alice Walker reads Sojourner Truth

Monica Sjöö: artist, author and pioneer feminist scholar

Monica Sjöö (1938-2005) was one of the foremost artists of our times. She also was an author and pioneer feminist scholar, as well as a lifelong activist for peace, pagans, women, social justice, the environment and her beloved Mother Earth.

We have a huge Sjöö Art Gallery with 240 of her images, an auto-biography, a complete online book, a great variety of her articles, tributes and memories, photos and many other bits and pieces of interest.

Since her death Monica's work seems to be gaining more recognition in her home country of Sweden, where two recent exhibitions have been held in conjunction with a seminar about her life and work.


Read more http://www.monicasjoo.org/

The Power of Cherokee Women

"In February of 1757, the great Cherokee leader Attakullakulla came to South Carolina to negotiate trade agreements with the governor and was shocked to find that no white women were present. “Since the white man as well as the red was born of woman, did not the white man admit women to their council?” Attakullakulla asked the governor. Carolyn Johnston, professor at Eckerd College and author of Cherokee Women in Crisis; Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907, says in her book that the governor was so taken aback by the question that he took two or three days to come up with this milquetoast response: “The white men do place confidence in their women and share their councils with them when they know their hearts are good.” 

Read more at

indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

Native American Nations: 595 known indigenous tribes as they existed before European contact

An incredible map showing all 595 known indigenous tribes as they existed before European contact across what is now the United States. 150 of these nations now have no descendants.

"In general in the United states, Americans are very ignorant about Native American history... In my small way, making this map is to reinforce the true history of the injustice and the genocide that occurred," says Aaron Carapella, the map's creator.

Explore it at http://aaron-carapella.squarespace.com/


via Cultures Of Resistance

Shawnee Women and the Goddess

"The Shawnee, who lived in what is now Kentucky, believed that a deity they called "Our Grandmother" was the creator of the universe and everything in it. As the supreme goddess, her creations were always beneficial to the Shawnee directly and mankind in general. Our Grandmother, who looked like an old woman with grey hair, was mentioned in every religious rite, and the large annual ceremonials were performed specifically to worship her, thereby preserving mankind and the world.



Our Grandmother took particular care to watch out for the Shawnee women. She told the winds that they were to treat Indian women ad though they were the winds' own sisters, and she enjoined them not to stare at the women when they were naked. She also admonished the women to respect the winds. The goddess' words were not always followed by the women, however, who sometimes pulled their skirts up to their waists when the weather was cloudy in an effort to frighten the wind-borne clouds back I'm embarrassment so that the weather would be warm and sunny."



And here's the best part: a story, also from the Shawnee



The Return of the Corn Person

"A long time ago two old women lived with a man. One say the women went away and left the man home alone. After waiting all day he got hungry and went to find some roasting ears of corn. When he got to the field he began to take ears off the stalk and found an ear that had a part that looked just like a vagina. He remembered hearing something about that and said to himself, "I hear that the Corn Person, our mother, is a woman. If this is true she will be embarrassed now when I have intercourse with her." Then he pulled out his penis and stuck it in a hole in the corn. Then he went back to his house.



The next day the old women arose early and went to look for corn. When they got to the field it was empty - the corn had all vanished. The Corn Person had fled to Our Grandmother who had created her.



Someone went after her and had to cross four oceans to find her. Corn Person was persuaded to rerun to earth only when the rescuer argued that it was Our Grandmother's intention that she should benefit the Shawnee on earth."



-Carolyn Niethammer, Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian Women

God’s bomb

"In 1945, while this day was dawning, Hiroshima lost its life. The atomic bomb’s first appearance incinerated this city and its people in an instant.

The few survivors, mutilated sleepwalkers, wandered among the smoking ruins. The burns on their naked bodies carried the stamp of the clothing they were wearing when the explosion hit. On what remained of the walls, the atom bomb’s flash left silhouettes of what had been: a woman with her arm raised, a man, a tethered horse.

Three day later, President Harry Truman spoke about the bomb over the radio.

He said: “We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes."

~Eduardo Galeano, Children of the Days

Ain't I a Woman? Alice Walker reads Sojourner Truth