A reflection of women’s achievements on Mother’s Day is an appropriate tribute (May flowers are nice, too). From our beginning mothers have not only perpetuated life for humanity, but everywhere they have nurtured home and hearth of family. Beyond this traditional role of fundamental importance, women have, of course, made significant contributions throughout history. Think of Eve, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Jane Austen, Florence Nightingale, Pearl S. Buck, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, Indira Gandhi, and many more, of course.
A broader role for women emerged during the 20th century. In America, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920 and provided women the right to vote. Increasingly today, women hold important public and private leadership positions in the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court, state legislatures and governorships, corporate boards and chief executive offices, and as pilots, engineers, doctors, foresters, and virtually all other occupations.
Mother Earth, the ultimate mother, is adorned with May flowers in the springtime of the northern hemisphere. And She is receiving help from some caring and active grandmothers, in fact, the “International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers” (see web link: http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/). These grandmothers are Margaret Behan–Cheyenne-Arapahoe; Rita Pitkta Blumenstein–Yup’ik; Aama Bombo–Tamang, Nepal; Julieta Casimiro– Mazatec; Flordemayo–Mayan; Maria Alice Campos Freire–Brazil; Tsering Dolma Gyaltong–Tibetan; Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance–Oglala Lakota; Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance–Oglala Lakota; Agnes Pilgrim–Takelma Siletz; Mona Polacca–Hopi/Havasupai; Clara Shinobu Iura–Brazil; Bernadette Rebienot–Omyene. To help Mother Earth, here is their mission statement:
The Grandmothers Mission Statement
WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children.
A wonderful collection of teachings and stories from the grandmothers is presented in Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet. This 2006 book by Carol Schaefer (Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, MA) introduces these extraordinary women, their views on relationships and women’s wisdom, their ideas for healing the Earth as well as ourselves, their plans for ending war and poverty, for bettering life on our planet, and their revelations about the importance of prayer.
For the Next Seven Generations, a feature-length documentary on the events and gatherings of these grandmothers from their founding in 2004, was completed in early summer 2009, and is being widely distributed. Visit www.forthenext7generations.com for more information (trailers are available at www.youtube.com/carolehart). Award-winning director Carole Hart says, “This film will awaken those who are asleep at the wheel, and inspire the rapidly growing numbers of people who are working to create peace, justice, harmony, and balance across the planet. With the ways the Grandmothers show us, we can sustain our planet so that our planet can sustain us.”
With the flowers that adorn May so beautifully, thanks to Mother Earth and to all the earth mothers (and their children) on Mother’s Day.
Many thanks, moms!
Best regards,
GEM Education Center Blog 