| International Feminist Summit – Opening Night |
[29 Jul 2007|10:20pm] |
Ok, I’ve finally settled in to write this. It was a struggle because although I really want to write about it there was just so much to take in and the experience was so incredible that I’m afraid that anything that I write will not even begin to do it justice.
Well, first things first. I was staying in a hotel with Spiderlily. She is a lesbian feminist (or rather a women’s liberationist) who I met at The Women’s Library (she is on the management committee) and she comes along to the Feminist Collective. My plane got in before hers so I had to wait for her outside the hotel as the room was under her name. While I was waiting I saw Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein and Diane Bell, three of my feminist sheroes, ambling along to the Indigenous Cultural Centre where the reception was taking place. I was too shy to talk to them but it was kind of thrilling, knowing that this small section of the planet (in redneck Queensland no less) would be overrun with feisty, fabulous women for the next three days.
Spider was running a bit late so we kinda rushed into the hotel and out to the reception. As soon as I walked into the room there was just this beautiful feeling. The room was crowded with women, I couldn’t hear anything but women talking and laughing. It was great to be there with Spiderlily because I tend to like fading into the background and watching. I’m usually too scared to talk to anyone. But Spider wouldn’t have any of that and she immediately dragged me into the thick of things, introducing me to all of these awesome young, radical feminists from Melbourne… and to Susan Hawthorne!!! So within minutes I had shaken Susan’s hand and stammered something about how much I had loved Wild Politics. She just smiled and said thank you.
Anyway, there were five young feminists from Melbourne and two from Townsville, I am assuming that the women from Melbourne were studying or had studied with Sheila Jeffreys. They were all as giddy and excited to be there as I was so that was nice. So we talked about how much it sucked that there was no visible feminism around anymore and that young women were all getting indoctrinated by the queer malestream and the left. I said that I’d heard that things were better in terms of feminism in Melbourne but they said that there were really only a few younger radical feminists.
Then the performances started. Florence Onus and another indigenous sister gave us a very warm welcome to country. After a short benign speech by a woman from the city council we were introduced to the Townsville Multicultural Women’s Choir. The Choir had actually formed for the sole purpose of singing at the summit. And wow, they were amazing. They sang all these powerful, political songs by strong sisters of the past. It was beautiful and uplifting.
We were then introduced to the Oolgamun Julbu Julbu Women’s Dance Group who gave us a glimpse of women’s spiritual powers, emphasising our connection to the earth, the sun, the sky, the river. After they danced they explained to us the signification of the ochre markings on their bodies. The markings indicate their tribal origins and one woman explained that the two stars on her collarbones were for her daughters and the star between her shoulder blades was for her grandmother. The markings connected her to her sisters in this way.
The night finished far too quickly so Spider, Lavender (a lesbian feminist who is a founding member of COAL [Coalition of Activist Lesbians] and a beautiful, raucous woman), her partner Judith, Jack (another member of COAL), her partner Sand and I all went to cake and coffee. All these awesome older feminists had a bit of a laugh at my naiveté and besottedness with women like Mary Daly and Sonia Johnson. They proceeded to tell me lots of stories to dispel the mist in my eyes. Though I enjoyed the gossip and the stories immensely I am sorry to say that they did not make one iota of difference to the quantity of mist in my eyes. :)
More to come...
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