Last May 7th, 2023, the International Feminists for a Gift Economy (IFGE) organized A Day of Global Sisterhood at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Syracuse, New York, USA – following but separate – of the conference of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM).
Global Sisterhood Day
The self organized day of music, ritual, dance, food and deliberations took place from 10 am to 4 pm. It was attended by 38 participants of different adult ages, ethnicities, nationalities and walks of life, all sharing in common the concerns and experiences regarding the state of the waters of the planet.
Keynote speaker and 2022 award recipient Hallie Iglehart Austen about «Reweaving the Web of Life: New Myths for Restoring the Waters and Ourselves» highlighted that we are all the change makers because there is a sacred responsibility chosen by life and we are in a moment of great turning point to step up together, to the challenges of achieving women and girls freedom, which is the way to stop climate crisis «because women hold the ancestral knowledge and therefore know what to do but they need control of their bodies and lives. One such knowledege is how to work together and it is very important because we remember we are all life, part of life, healing the destruction.»
Video of her talk: https://vimeo.com/824120810
Areeya Guadalupe Judith
Video of part of the Siterhood Day meeting: https://vimeo.com/825237569
The urgent need to further women’s work, studies, activism and spiritualities reclaiming our lost historical place in societies – past and present- was also addressed.
“I am here because of the gift economy because I could not come but placed a Go Fund Me and my friends pitched in and here I am, at a meeting by a gift economy network. How do we go about moving our world into a new way of being involves embodiment, so I am interested in how to support each other locally, regionally and internationally in a functional way” said one participant.
Women highlight ancestral times – pre patriarchy and capitalism – and present day indigenous communities and other territories, and groups where a balance in our specie’s relationship to all beings has women’s contribution as central to the Planet’s wellbeing with all its families.
“I come from several generations of academics but that is not my path, I am a herbalist and help form communities and created an ecofeminist library. I love critical thinking in ASWM. I have achieved a better understanding about what women are doing all over the world. The world has changed and we are in a different place in the world” stated another particiant.
“This zombie process and character is capitalism and patriarchy feeding on iself but when the mountains move, the roads and tunnels and buildings will collapse, and we are that mountain” said popular theatre producer, Rebecca Migdal Kilikaslan (right) adding that «I have learned that the gift economy has caused everything that nourishes everything and it comes form the feminine.”
The conference organized by ASWM explored water mythos, divinity, beings and ecology, recognizing the deplorable state of the waters of the planet due to contamination and commodification of nature’s gift of water and the desecration of its sacredness in our ancestral knowledge about connection, caring and gift economy expressed in mythology.
Many of the presenters developed their academic, ancestral knowledge and proactive activism regarding the often unacknowledged interpretations of such connections.
Go to: https://womenandmyth.org/2023-aswm-conference/
The day of Global Sisterthood
Issues such as the need for togetherness for inspiration, the need to share our stories, but also to get out of the comfort zones to see how other live and learn form it, issues of intergenerational interaction, challenging our internalized fears ad islolation and dismateling colonialism and also white supremacy were brought up during the Sisterhood event.
The list was as long as the amount of wmen in the meeting, and was categorized in two lines of actions: staying connected was one and the other was hor to manifest the gift economy in our lives.
Staying connected included the following: Network to continue to meet with women in circles of trust, continue to grow in small sacred circles of love, learn to be better listeners in order to support each other, as a mestizo woman we have learned many skills to begin again and the main one is the strength of women, meeting women from other cultures and cities has been good to know and I want to understand them, this is a time to do things, to act, not only talk about what happens. This has been an affirmation of the connections women make. Everyone has a story and we have to honor that because most women have to struggle tu survive every day. Moving forward in a loving way.
How to manifest the gift economy included the following: to know more about the gift economy which is what my mother and grandmothers did their whole lives, you can’t destroy patriarchy without the gift economy – a strong statement we have to understand better every time and continue the conversation, learn more what to do and what to read, how to get into the gift economy, get back to the clans in families, promoting intentional communities, embodiment of the commitment, develop women’s spiritually further, grow in appreciation of women, honoring friendship and generosity, I found here that there is a web of love that characterizes us. My body was a battleground and I have learned to live in it in peace.What I would like to do is look as the characteristics of white supremacy culture accessible in an article written by Shima in 1990 and look at the the gift economy and what it has to provide as antidote to white supremacy. I am here for connection and inspiration. I came here for the academics but have to be more open to the myths. I have learned, I have made mistakes and cannot have the luxury to walk away, I have to face mistakes. Multicultural beliefs shared here are the way to heal ourselves. I take away that thing change but some things stay the same: connections to the women I know. The planet operated on the gift economy and only patriarchy and capitalism that the human species has adopted exchange and it is killing our presence in this planet.
Following inmput from each participant, the women also wove experiences in a healing ritual and proposed strategies about where to go in consideration of the reflexions and deliberations.
Latonia Dixon stated that weaving the thread in the ritual brought her back to diversity, not only in terms of the color of your skin but also in age and mothers or maidens, etc. All inclusions woven together. Latonia had stated in the Conference thar reparation is creating community that includes all.
The state of the waters of the planet was addressed by the to day conference by ASWM, recognizing the critical role that women play in supporting its own regenerative capacities and women’s role in using it respectfully and researching and highlighting the times when it was venerated as sacred and present day rituals by women’s collectves and indigenous peoples that recognize it as grandmother of Mother Earth.
Thoughout the ASWM Conference, there were so many studies and books of water godesses presented in all cultures North and South, Eat and West, that «it cannot be a mere coincidence » said Anna, a young volunteer at the meeting. Give it back to us, the futture is ancestral. One poposal made a the ASWM Conference was to to produce a comprehensive Declaration abot the Oceans according to women’s perspectives.
After lunch at the Sisterhood is Global meeting, strategies were proposed that included the following:
- An email list was created in order to stay connected
- A proposal to consider Costa Rica’s Caribbean as the venue for the next conference in two years was made by the Costa Ricans.
- Revisit White Supremacy paper by feminists and the gift eonomy in in today’s context.
IFGE facilitators were Letecia Layson, Judith Wouk, María Suárez Toro, Guadalupe Urbina, Areeya Marie.
To contact IFGE go to https://www.maternalgifteconomymovement.org
