Daphne Odjigodjig the Art of a Firebrand Nettie Wiebe Why Food Is a Feminist Issue Homeless Women Who Is Listening?

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QUEER PARK 5 TRAPS TO AFGHANISTAN: WRESTLING AVOID OVERSEAS WHAT NEXT?

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news CHILD-SEX TOURISM TARGET OF PUBLIC CAMPAIGN ...... 6 by Katie Palmer WHAT DO AFGHAN WOMEN WANT? ...... 7 Women in Afghanistan have little faith that their gains will hold at a time when their government has beckoned the Taliban to the negotiating table. What do women of the country want from countries like Canada? by Lauryn Oates QUEER PARK WRESTLING PINS HOPE ON ACCEPTANCE ...... 11 by Arwen Brenneman REBELLES WITH A CAUSE ...... 15 7 features FIELD OF DREAMS ...... 16 Herizons has an inspired chat with Nettie Wiebe, a food radical from Saskatchewan who just happens to be running for Parliament in the upcoming federal election. by Renée Bondy

A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS...... 20 A May conference on homelessness among women will be the first of its kind in Canada. The author explores 20 the needs of homeless women and why they are unique in many cases, compared to men’s needs. by Victoria Bailey THE ART OF DAPHNE ODJIG ...... 24 Daphne Odjig has been radical in addressing issues of colonization, the displacement of Aboriginal peoples and the status of Aboriginal women and children, bringing Aboriginal political issues to the forefront of contemporary art practices and theory. by Jann L.M. Bailey 5 TRAPS TO AVOID VOLUNTEERING OVERSEAS . . . . 32 Lofty ideals and a desire to change the world compel many people to volunteer their time overseas. However, it is difficult to keep one’s own privilege in check. Here’s a checklist of traps that volunteers working in developing countries often fall into. by Katie Palmer 16 HERIZONS SPRING 2011 1 her-053 Spring 2011 v24n4.qxp 3/25/11 11:24 PM Page 2

VOLUME 24 NO. 4

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MANAGING EDITOR: Penni Mitchell FULFILLMENT AND OFFICE MANAGER: Phil Koch ACCOUNTANT: Sharon Pchajek BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Phil Koch, Penni Mitchell, Kemlin Nembhard, Valerie Regehr EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: Gio Guzzi, Penni Mitchell, Kemlin Nembhard ADVERTISING SALES: Penni Mitchell (204) 774-6225 DESIGN: inkubator.ca RETAIL INQUIRIES: Disticor (905) 619-6565 PROOFREADER: Phil Koch COVER: Thunderbird Woman, by Daphne Odjig; 47 photo copyright Kamloops Art Gallery. arts & ideas HERIZONS is published four times per year by HERIZONS Inc. in MUST-HAVE MUSIC ...... 36 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. One-year subscription price: $27.50 Sweet Vibration by Maiko Watson; Aam Zameen by Kiran plus $1.92 GST = $29.42 in Canada. Subscriptions to U.S. add $6.00. Ahluwalia; Let England Shake by PJ Harvey; Follow Your International subscriptions add $9.00. Cheques or money orders Bliss by Po’ Girl; We Kill Computers by The Pack A.D. are payable to: HERIZONS, PO Box 128, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA R3C 2G1. Ph (204) 774-6225. SPRING READING ...... 38 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: [email protected] Fauna by Alissa York; I Still Don’t Even Know You EDITORIAL INQUIRIES: [email protected] by Michelle Berry; Ape House by Sara Gruen; The Second ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: [email protected] Trial by Rosemarie Boll; Thinandbeautiful.com WEBSITE: www.herizons.ca by Liane Shaw; Farmer Jane: Changing the Way We Eat HERIZONS is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index and heard by Temra Costa; Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music on Voiceprint. and Sound by Tara Rodgers; The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. GST #R131089187. ISSN 0711-7485. by Ruth Simkin; Gold Metal Diary by Hayley Wickenheiser; The purpose of HERIZONS is to empower women; to inspire hope Muslim Women Reformers by Iida Lichter; I Feel Great and foster a state of wellness that enriches women’s lives; to build About My Hands edited by Shari Graydon; Sex, Lies and awareness of issues as they affect women; to promote the Pharmaceuticals by Ray Moynihan and Barbara Mintzes. strength, wisdom and creativity of women; to broaden the boundaries of feminism to include building coalitions and support among FILM REVIEW ...... 47 other marginalized people; to foster peace and ecological awareness; and to expand the influence of feminist principles in the The Maid world. HERIZONS aims to reflect a feminist philosophy that is Review by Maureen Medved diverse, understandable and relevant to women’s daily lives. JUSTICE BERTHA WILSON: Views expressed in HERIZONS are those of the writers and do not ONE WOMAN’S DIFFERENCE ...... 45 necessarily reflect HERIZONS’ editorial policy. No material may be by Debra Ostrovsky reprinted without permission. Due to limited resources, HERIZONS does not accept poetry or fiction submissions.

HERIZONS acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) columns for our publishing activities. PENNI MITCHELL ...... 5 HERIZONS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Manitoba Arts Council. Let Them Eat Rice Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008866, Return Undeliverable LYN COCKBURN ...... 48 Addresses to: PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3C 2G1, Email: Branding the Pope [email protected] Herizons is proudly printed with union labour at SUSAN G. COLE The Winnipeg Sun Commercial Print Division and Will be back next issue is printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper.

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letters

CHRYSLER CONDEMNED end up with two back hands One of Herizons subscribers shared her letter with us Put Anthrax on a Tampax and slap you till you after watching a commercial during the SuperBowl tele- can’t stand” cast. We thought readers would be interested in hearing how she registered her offence to Chrysler. I respectfully request that you remove Eminem from your advertisements immediately and apologize to your moth- Letter to: ers, sisters and daughters. Reid Bigland Let’s all take a stand against degradation and violence. President, Chrysler Group LLC CATHERINE LAKE Toronto, On I was saddened to see that Chrysler chose Eminem to embody the revitalized North American auto industry. A PORN AGAIN quick scan of your company history and current diversity Thank you for publishing the initiatives demonstrates an organization committed to the article “Porn Again” in the advancement of women and visible minorities. Winter 2011 issue. It was so In stark contrast to this image is Eminem. When you apropos to receive this in the choose him to represent your company, you have chosen mail just days after the unbe- to attach your products and image to misogyny and rape. lievable protest in Italy, in My tax dollars are helping to rebuild Chrysler. From which a million people across government websites I read that: “Of the $3.7 billion com- the country protested, among mitted to Chrysler by Canada and Ontario, $2.9 billion has other things, the image of been drawn upon to date. Chrysler emerged from bank- women in the Italian media. ruptcy protection on June 10, 2009. As additional Said one of the protest organizers, Ida Poletto: “Women consideration for providing loans to Chrysler, Canada and in this country are denigrated by the repeated, indecent Ontario received a 2 percent equity stake in the restruc- and ostentatious representation of women as a naked tured firm.” sexual object on offer in newspapers, television and And this is how you repay us? Shame on you. advertising. It’s intolerable.” Here is a very small sample of offensive lyrics, from I suggest that your readers check out Jane Caputi’s Eminem’s 2002 song, “Superman:” 2007 film The Pornography of Everyday Life, which “I’ll slap you off that barstool addresses the implications of having pornographized There goes another lawsuit images of women saturating everyday media. The film Leave handprints all across you also has the unique approach of illuminating the appropri- Good lordy wody you must be gone off that ation of traditional, sacred images of women by the water bottle pornography industry. You want what you can’t have Thank you for your excellent work! oh girl that’s too damn bad PENNY DARLING Don’t touch what you can’t grab Lake Worth, Fla contributors

JANN L.M. BAILEY MAUREEN MEDVED Jann L. M. Bailey has been involved in Maureen Medved’s writing has been the contemporary art field for over 30 published in literary magazines and years. She organized A Legacy of Sur- her plays have been produced in Van- vival, the first public exhibition of the couver, Waterloo and Toronto. art of the Secwepemc Nation, B.C., and In 2007, Bruce McDonald directed is responsible for building one of Canada’s leading collec- Maureen’s screen adaptation of her novel, The Tracey tions of contemporary First Nations art. In 2005, she Fragments. Maureen is currently completing another co-curated Canada’s participation in the Venice Biennale novel. She teaches in the creative writing program at the with Vancouver-based artist Rebecca Belmore, the first University of British Columbia. Aboriginal woman artist to represent Canada.

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first word BY PENNI MITCHELL

LET THEM EAT RICE

I liked the photo of Bev Oda in the newspaper when I first announced at an Israeli conference on anti-Semitism in saw it, the one of her smoking outside on the Hill, wearing December 2009 that “We have defunded organizations, most those dark sunglasses. I know she’d just had eye surgery, but recently, like Kairos, who are taking a leadership role in the boy- she looked tough—which is what you have to be as a woman cott” against Israel. In fact, Kairos’s board of directors rejected a in politics at the best of times. motion on the boycott, divestment and sanctions issue in 2007. These are not the best of times, however, and how Oda The organization does support a “just peace” policy for Israelis appeared is less important now than what she did—or didn’t and Palestinians this could be why Kenny slammed Kairos’s do, depending on whether you believe she directed someone “militant stance towards the Jewish state.” He later backtracked, to insert the word “not” into Kairos’s funding memo. saying this was not why Kairos was defunded. Later, a Conser- Personally, I was less troubled by Oda’s culpability in alter- vative caucus briefing note suggested that Kairos had ing a document already signed by a funding agency—in this inappropriately used public funds for “advocacy,” a claim that case, the Canadian International Development Agency contradicts the initial funding-priorities explanation. (CIDA)—than I was angry that another highly reputed Around the same time Kairos’s funding was denied, the human rights organization had been defunded by Stephen Harper government also went after the international human Harper’s government for daring to have a different world rights agency Rights and Democracy. Established under view than its conservative funding master. Brian Mulroney, this aid agency was targeted after it provided Kairos, an ecumenical international aid agency made up of three small grants to Palestinian human rights organizations. 11 Canadian churches and religious organizations (Anglican, Conservative appointees have since taken control and its United, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Christian board passed a motion repudiating the grants. Reformed, Mennonite and Quaker), proudly calls itself a As aid is skewed towards Conservative values and away from social justice organization. It uses Biblical values to fight the independent human rights, women suffer. Kenny hinted that Alberta tar sands, and South African Archbishop Desmond Kairos might have been funded if it focused more on food aid, Tutu has sung its praises. for example. Perhaps he will take it upon himself to inform the CIDA supported Kairos’s aid work for 35 years, until 2009, rape victims in the Congo who would have benefitted from when its funding proposal was held up. By the time Oda signed Kairos’s legal clinic—a project affected by the defund—that it in November of that year (or perhaps even after she did), the what they need isn’t human rights, after all, but a bag of rice? word “not” had been inserted in the crucial approval sentence. Here’s more to chew on. In May, another international aid And yet, when CIDA head Margaret Biggs signed the docu- group, MATCH International, had its federal funding ment recommending its approval two months earlier, there was pulled. The group viewed birth control and abortion as life- no “not.” It was made to appear as if Biggs endorsed the refusal. saving women’s health needs in developing countries, a view The $7.1 million for which the group had applied— that didn’t match Stephen Harper’s maternal health strategy $1,775,000 a year for four years—is 0.04 percent of CIDA’s for the G20. MATCH is one of more than a dozen organi- assistance budget of $4.73 billion. Kairos wanted to further zations backing women’s human rights whose doors were its development work in countries like Sudan, the Congo, shut because advancing women’s human rights are no longer the Philippines and Colombia—all facing serious human a government priority. rights crises. Six months later, many Arab countries have taken a step Oda first told a parliamentary committee she didn’t know forward on human rights and freedoms, while Ottawa is tak- how the word got there. Later, she said she directed the doc- ing Canada’s support backwards. The recent uprisings in ument to be altered and said Kairos no longer met CIDA’s Cairo, Tunisia, Iran, Libya and Syria are a timely reminder funding priorities. Strange. You’d think that’s something on that we cannot take human rights for granted. Perhaps these which Biggs, as head of CIDA, would have been briefed. protests will serve as a warning to Canada’s minority govern- Stranger still is that Citizenship and Immigration Minister ment: When human rights aren’t honoured, there will be Jason Kenny, who is not the minister responsible for CIDA, political consequences.

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nelliegrams CHILD-SEX CAMPAIGN EGYPTIAN WOMEN RISE UP TARGETS ABUSERS They may not have been front and centre on the BY KATIE PALMER news footage on TV, but magazines, which gets a clear message women were an instru- across to the traveller—sex with a minor is mental part of the recent major criminal offense … and you will be Egyptian uprising that forced former caught,” Perera says. president Hosni Mubarek from power. The poster is striking and evocative, a Asmaa Mahfouz, 26, participated in a pro bono campaign developed by Montreal video protest that was joined by a power- advertising firm BCP. It features a middle- ful wave of young people whose aged man posing with a female teenager. organizing and leadership skills were Their faces are crossed out with a black instrumental to the uprising’s success. marker, and at the bottom it reads: “If you In the January video, she holds a sign can’t show what you did on vacation, vowing to try to bring down Mubarak maybe you shouldn’t do it. Sex with a minor through protest. The sign says, “Do not is a major crime wherever you go.” be afraid.” Many others followed suit, OneChild works to eradicate the posting their own pictures, holding simi- commercial sexual exploitation of children. lar signs across their chests that More than two million children worldwide declared their intent to take to the streets are victims of commercial sexual on January 25. Mubarek resigned his exploitation every year. position on February 11. The sex-abuse awareness poster reads: “If you can’t Some travelling sex offenders are also When Mahfouz first posted the video, show what you did on vacation, maybe you shouldn’t do it. Sex with a minor is a major crime wherever you go.” referred to as “situational abusers,” people she said she was worried about the reac- who may not have sex with children in their tion it might generate in a society that home country, but do so abroad because of expected women to behave in a more Last year, Cheryl Perera travelled throughout a perception that they won’t get caught. subdued and reserved manner. Southeast Asia to further her understanding According to the UN Convention on the Mahfouz is one of the founders of the of the child sex tourism industry. Posing as a Rights of the Child, a child is anyone under April 6 Youth Movement, a group of tourist, she befriended sex tourists in red- 18. young Egyptian activists. With a goal of light districts in Thailand and Cambodia. It Ben Perrin, a law professor at the reaching out to what she called a “silent was after talking at a bar with one such University of British Columbia, says that majority” of youth in Egypt, the group tourist, a retired pilot from Australia, that she between 1993 and 2007, an estimated 146 used Facebook and Twitter to reinforce became convinced that laws can be strong Canadians were charged for sexually its face-to-face organizing efforts. deterrents to sex tourists, but only if they exploiting children in other countries. Perera To see pictures of women in Egypt, know about them. says the new poster campaign reinforces the check out the Facebook page Women of When she returned to Canada, Perera message of the in-flight videos. Egypt, created by Leil-Zahra Mortada. Or decided more needed to be done to combat “Awareness-raising is a first step to use the link at www.herizons.ca. sex tourism abroad, and an eye-catching curbing the demand that feeds the child-sex public awareness campaign is the result. trade,” says Perera. While Canada has had VICTIMS SUE MILITARY The organization Perera founded in 2005, legislation allowing its citizens to be A group of U.S. veterans who report they OneChild, has already helped develop an in- charged for sexual abuse committed were raped and intimidated by fellow ser- flight video campaign to warn Canadian overseas since 1997, the public knows little vicemen filed a federal class-action tourists that sex with children is a crime. about it, she adds. That’s changing. “We lawsuit in a Washington court in February. The videos reach 40,000 passengers per have received several calls, ranging from The complainants charge that the U.S. month, according to Perera. high school students who want to get military is incapable of conducting proper The poster campaign, however, is involved with our projects all the way to the investigations and say that victims are designed to reach tourists prior to takeoff. CEO of a major Canadian travel insurance frequently ordered to continue to serve Produced in collaboration with Air Canada, company,” she says. alongside those who assaulted them. Aeroports de Montreal, the Canada Border “A deterrence campaign like this one can The lawsuit names U.S. Defense Sec- Services Agency, the Montreal City Police go very far in sensitizing situational abusers retary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Force, Quebec Safety, the International and the general public on the social, Donald Rumsfeld. The group, made up of Bureau for Children’s Rights, UNICEF humanitarian and legal consequences of more than a dozen women and two men, Canada and Plan Canada, it is the first engaging in child sex tourism,” she wants an objective third party to handle made-in-Canada poster campaign that aims believes. sexual assault complaints in the future to eradicate child-sex tourism. Letting people know they can report instead of military commanders. Those “We wanted something visual and suspected cases at cybertip.ca, for named in the lawsuit include an army striking to be placed in airports, travel example, lets sex tourists know that they criminal investigator and an army agencies, consulates, and in-flight aren’t immune from prosecution.

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WHAT DO WOMEN IN nelliegrams National Guard commander. The abuse AFGHANISTAN WANT? they allege ranges from obscene verbal abuse to gang rape. BY LAURYN OATES An unnamed army reservist says two male colleagues raped her in Iraq, videotaped the attack, and then circu- lated the video to colleagues. She was bruised from her shoulders to elbows after being held down during the incident, but charges weren’t filed. The commander allegedly told her she “did not act like a rape victim” and “did not struggle enough.”

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER PROTESTED Women organized country-wide protests in Italy calling for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign in February after prosecutors requested he be tried for paying Karima Fawzi Koofi, an Afghan MP and an outspoken women’s rights advocate asks: “Is the threat really gone now, so you el-Mahroug, for sex when she was just 17. can leave?” (Photo: CP Images) More than a million people protested in more than 200 cities throughout Italy, On a frigid January day, I sat in the lobby of It was a bold, courageous move on the as well as in London and New York. One Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, once the city’s part of the parliamentarians. But it was also sign read: “No prostitutes, no Madonnas, lap of luxury. Today, its 1960s decor seems full of risk. In many ways, it is a moment just women.” frozen in time, cigarette smoke and all. that symbolizes the present situation for Organisers called the protest If Not The lobby is abuzz with activity. Most of women in Afghanistan: They find them- Now, When?, the title of a famous novel Afghanistan’s Members of Parliament have selves at a nexus of courage and anxiety, by Italian writer Primo Levi about a group come to the hotel, and security is tight. For- amidst a highly uncertain political future. of Jewish partisans behind German lines eign journalists sprint from one MP to Women’s move into public spaces has during World War II. another and, in between interviews, make yielded sweeping change, but any progress Iaia Caputo, one of the leaders of the hurried calls on their mobiles. American could be wiped away in the event of the Tal- anti-Berlusconi demonstrations, said, diplomats nervously whisper to each other, iban joining the present government. “The Ruby case has revealed a system of trying to stay on top of the developments of Afghanistan’s democracy—and the roles political selection based on an exchange the day. and rights of women within it—face an of sex and power.” The emergency meeting at the hotel was uncertain future. The Canadian government Berlusconi, a billionaire, has been called after Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reassessed its own role in Afghanistan’s charged multiple times but never con- refused to inaugurate a new parliament future. The military’s combat role ends this victed of sex charges. His trial could following last fall’s parliamentary elections. summer and will be replaced by a smaller start in April. Instead, he wanted to convene a special training mission. Aid commitments have court to investigate allegations of voter decreased, though Afghanistan has long JAPANESE WOMEN fraud. Many MPs who had alleged fraud, been the foremost recipient of Canadian for- PROTEST NAME however, were Karzai supporters. MPs eign development assistance. Aid priorities POLICY who were elected were suspicious and beyond 2011 are still being determined; A group of Japanese cit- unwilling to wait months without a func- Canada’s Senate recently held hearings on izens filed a lawsuit in tioning parliament. how Canada can support women’s rights in February challenging a 113-year-old law Fawzia Koofi, MP for the northernmost Afghanistan going forward. that requires married couples to choose province of Badakhshan, suddenly swept into Where will the needs of the women of just one surname. Few men agree to the lobby, bundled in an elegant black cloak. Afghanistan figure into Canada’s decisions? adopt their wives’ names, so women are “Sorry I’m late,” she said as she sat down, What do Afghan women want? Will the forced to change theirs. having rushed from one of the meetings. She international community commit to The lawsuit says the practice violates explained that a collective decision was Afghanistan’s security and women’s secu- women’s constitutional equality. The five reached by the parliamentarians to ignore rity into the foreseeable future? plaintiffs, four women and the partner of the special court and inaugurate Parliament Koofi took the international community at one of the claimants, are seeking six mil- without the president’s permission. She lion yen ($70,000 US) in damages from the seemed both excited and anxious. (Continued on page 8) government. They want local government

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offices to accept marriage certificates that list their separate surnames. Japan’s Asian neighbours, including China and South Korea, permit married women to have different surnames than their husbands. Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s liberals had promised to allow couples to keep separate surnames when they came to power in 2009. Opposition conservatives oppose the move. One plaintiff, Emie Kayama, divorced her husband so that she could legally use her maiden name. The couple, still together, are plaintiffs in the case. Female students attending college in Kabul are hopeful their gains will not be lost. (Photo: Lauryn Oates) —AP

KATY PERRY its word in late 2010, when many NATO technology. Sadat is about to start export- IN GOOD countries committed to back a new regime ing, with technical assistance from the U.S. COMPANY in Afghanistan that would uphold the rights government. It’s one of many programs According to a large of women. She, like hundreds of others, that have been set up to assist female U.S. study on sex seized the opportunity to have a voice in the entrepreneurs. and safe sex, women are twice as likely political sphere. “I support myself, as well as other than men to report having had sex with a The payoffs have been significant. Koofi women,” she explains. “It’s a good picture I same-sex partner. recalls during the latest elections, watching have of the future. If Afghan women want to The study, by the National Campaign women line up to vote for her. “They came expand and develop their skills, they can do to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Preg- to my office at 6:00 a.m. There were 600 this. They don’t need to be afraid.” nancy, tracked the sexual habits of teens women. I was up at 4:00 a.m. when the Sadat is confident that her daughters and adults. It conducted interviews with phone calls started. There was a long face a future full of opportunity and believes over 18,000 Americans between 15 and queue!” In addition to women’s right to the worst is behind them. “Now I am very 44 years of age. The results were com- vote, she cites better education and free,” she says, smiling. pared with a similar survey in 2002. It improved attitudes by men towards MP Gulalai Nur Sati, who represents found an overall decrease in teen preg- women’s rights as signs of advancement. Balkh province, points to health care as a nancy and a steady decline in sex among Hassina Sayed, a prominent business- sign of progress. Few Afghans had access those in the 15-24 age group, from 78 woman and rights activist in Kabul, points to to health care under the Taliban regime, percent to 72 percent. the improvement in women’s political rights and the health infrastructure that existed Participants were also asked what as a significant step forward. “We now was devastated by the time the regime fell type of sex they engaged in, and with have good representation in Parliament,” in 2001. Sati, who is also a medical doctor, whom. More than half of young people she says. At the same time, she acknowl- remembers visiting a hospital in 2002. who had oral sex said they did so before edges the corruption that permeates “It was filthy. There were no doctors,” having vaginal sex. Twenty-one percent politics and notes that there are formidable she says. Today, the same hospital is trans- reported having anal sex. For all ages, flaws in the electoral process. formed. It’s clean, well-staffed and well women reported having sex with a Sayed has taken advantage of the new stocked with supplies. female partner twice as often as men freedoms afforded to women. She runs a “I can see the change,” Sati says. reported sex with a man. popular hotel and restaurant and uses fruits While progress is evident, it is also vul- and vegetables from rural women produc- nerable. Koofi has watched her govern- BISEXUAL ers in the dishes served there. She also ment’s overtures to negotiate with the Tal- WOMEN started a cargo delivery company that iban. While some in government believe the FORGIVEN transports goods between Kabul and Dubai. Taliban capable of reform, she believes it According to a Her businesses are profitable and she has a has gotten worse. recently published seat in the Afghan Chamber of Commerce. “The Taliban are more regional, more American study, a man is more than twice Like Sayed, Mariam Sadat decided to go extremist today,” she says. as likely to continue dating a woman if she into business. Her family lived in poverty as Referring to Canadian soldiers who are cheats on him with another woman, than if refugees in Pakistan, though she and her part of the International Security Assistance she cheats on him with another man. husband were both well-educated. When Force Koofi cautions: “For the short term, it Jaime C. Confer, a doctoral student in she returned to Kabul, she founded a dry might make your people happy to see your fruit and nut company that today employs psychology at the University of Texas at children coming back, but in the long term, 350 women across three provinces. The Austin, and Mark D. Cloud, a psychology it will be worse [for women here].” professor at Lock Haven University in women grow and then dry pistachios, wal- Pennsylvania, teamed up to do the nuts, almonds and grapes using satellite (Continued on page 10)

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nelliegrams She believes that Iran and Pakistan are sitting on the sidelines, waiting to take research, published in a journal on per- advantage of the chaos when international sonality differences. troops pull out. They asked 700 college students how “The question for your public is how long they would respond to infidelity on the can you be here? We have this question, too, part of an imagined dating partner. Please realize this is not an Afghan war. This Whether the imagined affair was is really an international, a regional war. repeated or a one-time incident didn’t “The relationship between India and Pak- matter as much as the gender of the per- istan, between Russia and Central Asian son the affair was with, at least for the republics, what Iran is up to, affect the situ- men. Male survey participants’ likelihood ation in Afghanistan. All these things fuel of continuing to date the imagined girl- the situation. We have to look at it from a friend who’d had a lesbian dalliance was comprehensive approach—not just snap- 50 percent. But if she cheated with a Humaira Rasuli heads the women’s organization Medica shots of peace, like photos of the Peace Afghanistan and wants the departure of international man, the likelihood was just 22 percent. Jirga or Peace Council, to say they are try- forces to happen according to benchmarks, rather than Female survey participants were more ing to bring peace.” arbitrary dates. (Photo: Lauryn Oates) likely to ditch an unfaithful boyfriend; the Humaira Rasuli, head of the women’s likelihood of a woman keeping the cheat- organization Medica Afghanistan, wants the beckoning members of the Taliban to the ing beau was only 28 percent for sex with negotiating table. There is widespread fear another woman, and 21 percent if he had departure of international forces to happen that the rights gained by women will be up had sex with a man. according to benchmarks, rather than arbitrary dates. “We are disappointed if troops for grabs, and that the progress made to CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTRES leave before real security has been date is too vulnerable. TO COME CLEAN brought,” Rasuli says, sitting in her Kabul Sati would like aid from countries like Canada to be highly visible, accessible and New York City Council on March 2 office. She believes Canada and other coun- sustainable. She says aid to date has been approved a motion to force “crisis preg- tries should continue dividing resources poorly co-ordinated and too centralized in nancy” centres to inform their clients, between humanitarian aid and security. major urban areas like Kabul. Afghan devel- including readers of their websites, of Koofi offers her own advice: “The inter- opment workers have also criticized the precisely what services they do and do national community needs to ask, why are not offer. Specifically, such organiza- we in Afghanistan? For our security alone, fact that aid is heavily focused on conflict tions must tell clients whether they have or for theirs, too? Have the objectives we areas, ignoring those provinces that have the capacity to provide prenatal care, or set been met yet if we are ready to leave? I been peaceful, potentially destabilizing whether they simply refer pregnant know your governments are under pressure them later on. women elsewhere. They must also tell because you are investing blood and treas- “We are not yet stable,” Humaria stresses. clients whether they provide emergency ure in our country, but it’s important to ask “After three decades of war, it’s one step for- contraception and abortion, and whether the job has been done.” ward, two steps back.” She wants to see whether they have a licensed medical Few Afghans are confident that their own more legal reforms and greater police capac- provider on staff. security forces are capable of protecting ity to protect women. “Violence against Crisis pregnancy organizations are them at this stage. During a February women is still treated as a private matter. We usually fronts for anti-abortion organiza- debate on Afghan television, the majority of need the police to understand the practical tions and commonly do not have medical audience members polled responded “No” application of women’s rights.” staff. Typically their purpose is to pres- when asked whether they thought Afghan Fawzia Koofi says the best way to mar- sure women in crisis not to terminate an forces were ready to take over security ginalize the Taliban is this: “The very basic unwanted pregnancy. responsibilities in 2014. rule of law is what is needed and the proper The vast majority of women I spoke with distribution of resources. Some communi- PLANNED PARENTHOOD IGNITES said more needs to be achieved in demo- ties have been penalized for bringing PROTEST STORM cratic development before the international security to their communities or reducing The U.S. House of Representatives voted community disengages. Transparency Inter- drug cultivation. The insecure areas are in February to stop funding Planned Par- national recently rated Afghanistan as the getting all the resources, punishing those enthood. House speaker Nancy Pelosi second-most corrupt country in the world, who have security.” dubbed abortion attacks in her country tying with Burma (also known as Myanmar). Hassina Sayed believes Canadian aid as the “most radical assault on reproduc- Many Afghans believe the international should assist women to get into business tive rights in our lifetime.” community’s presence in Afghanistan pro- because it gets their families out of poverty The move was part of an amendment vides a desperately needed check on the and gives women power in their households now before the U.S. Senate. In Afghan government as trust in Karzai’s lead- and communities. response, pro-choice rallies drew hun- ership erodes. Mariam Sadat was inspired to found her dreds of thousands of protesters across All of these women stress the need for business as she witnessed how women the U.S. in February and March. In New greater accountability in governance, in the work in every stage of agriculture and “yet York City, a Planned Parenthood rally distribution of aid and in the actions of the their husbands control and keep all the drew 5,000. Rallies took place in more international community. They have little money they earn. They do all the work and than 50 cities. trust in their government at a time when it is have no decision-making power.” She

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wants Canada to help diversify oned by the Taliban. Her two daughters Afghanistan’s economy. were in tow when I interviewed her. They nelliegrams Sayed, Sadat, Koofi, Sati and Rasuli played in the hallways of the hotel while embody the changes of post-Taliban their mother sat through committee meet- Republican politicians in Nebraska, Afghanistan. They have blazed forward, ings and talked to the press. Montana, Texas and other states have boldly venturing into politics, business and Occasionally, they came to the café in recently introduced restrictive measures civil society. And yet they say the changes the lobby to check in with their mother. to undermine abortion services in the U.S. of the past decade are reversible. That’s One daughter on each side, she slid her and abroad through federal aid restric- why they want the international commu- arms around their waists and squeezed tions. Planned Parenthood clinics also nity to make a long-term commitment to them close. provide contraception, and supporters their country. She turned to me and said: “We have point out that the clinics’ services reduce Later, in January, parliament was inau- been putting ourselves at a lot of risk over the need for abortion and save lives. gurated after President Karzai bowed to the past few years, speaking out and pressure from members of parliament, and standing by our values—which is not easy LEGAL ABORTION SAVES to a lesser extent, from the international in a country like Afghanistan. What will be WOMEN’S LIVES community. The country and its govern- the consequences for people like us? Nepal has dramatically reduced its ment remain fragile. What will be the consequences for you, maternal mortality rate (MMR) from 539 I am reminded of Koofi, whose husband too? Is the threat really gone now, so you per 10,000 live births in 2001 to 289 in died of tuberculosis after he was impris- can leave?” 2006. Medical experts attribute this to the legalization of abortion in 2002. With legal abortions now available in Nepal, the country hopes to bring down the MMR to its target rate of 134 per 10,000 by 2015. A three-month survey conducted QUEER WRESTLING PINS by the international reproductive health organization Ipas found that legal abortions are safe and that less than two HOPE ON ACCEPTANCE percent of the 7,007 women who were tracked had suffered post-abortion compli- BY ARWEN BRENNEMAN cations of low to moderate severity. “This is a great sign indeed,” said Ipas Nepal director Indira Basnett. “Following the government decision to legalize abortion, the government as well as private stakeholders have been providing abortion services in Nepal, and the results are very promising.” Since 2002, abortion has been legal upon request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the woman’s life or health is in danger, and in cases of rape, incest and fetal impairment. The decision came about in the form of an amendment to Nepal’s civil code.

NIGERIA ACTS TO PREVENT MATERNAL DEATH In December, Nige- ria became first country in the world to Queer Park Wrestling is a place to come together, a place where participants are empowered and accepted. use of misoprostol tablets outside of hos- (Photo: Belle Ancell) pital settings in order to prevent postpartum hemorrage (PPH). Since 2006 (VANCOUVER) The wrestlers in the amateur or sparkles. Spectators cheer and laugh the tablets have been used in hospitals to tournament at Vancouver’s Strathcona Park when a competitor breaks free and shakes prevent and treat PPH. With a majority of focus as ferociously as Olympians. They are their tush at a rival. Nigerian women delivering their babies vocal in their efforts, sometimes awkward, Amanda Ruckus, one of two organizers of at home, the approval of the use of miso- as they heave and twist and work toward Queer Park Wrestling, sat down to talk prostol tablets at the community level pinning their opponents. about the growing popularity of the group offers the most vulnerable women Unlike Olympians, however, these and about wrestling that is part sport, part access to a life-saving solution. competitors are often dressed club- performance and part political action. The Population and Reproductive fabulous—ruffles, spandex, striped tights (Continued on page 13) Health Partnership, a research unit within

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(Continued from page 11) ref can call unsafe moves, but the individual can call unsafe moves for them. HERIZONS: What is Queer Park nelliegrams Wrestling (QPW)? It seems like Queer Park Wrestling shares Amanda Ruckus: Queer Park Wrestling is a an ethic with roller derby. As someone with Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna State, place where people who don’t have media- a pacifist background, can you explain to was involved in drafting the guidelines perfect bodies get to have a space to feel me why violent competition is important? for the use of misoprostol to prevent and safe, and to have challenge and Amanda Ruckus: As a feminist who grew up treat PPH. About 10 percent of the competition around their bodies. For within a pacifist family, I didn’t understand world’s maternal deaths occur in Nigeria someone who is not a jock, or is not the excitement of the feedback and and excessive bleeding after delivery is straight, or is not gender [conforming], it sexiness of combat—it was silenced within the leading cause. Misoprostol can also won’t be necessarily safe to be in a typical me. It’s interesting—as women we were be used to induce abortion up to 8 weeks sports league, or take their clothes off in forced into the kitchen, where we had to be of a pregnancy. the locker room. [QPW] is a place that’s docile, but as feminists we’re still not safe, a place to come together, and be entirely comfortable with our aggression. IRANIAN WOMEN empowered and be whatever shape you Aggression is a natural part of human PROTEST are, and be accepted. survival, an aspect that we require. But Iranian Nobel Peace It is also an opportunity for people and obviously it’s not always safe. We live in a Prize laureate Shirin communities to meet together in a place really violent society, and the violence we Ebadi applauded Iranian that isn’t focused around substances like see is non-consensual—like violence in the women for taking to the drugs or alcohol. news, or … when someone is queer- streets on March 8, And importantly, it’s a place for people to bashed—they have no choice in that. International Women’s Day, in spite of the come together in consensual combat. In But when you lay out the negotiated rules threats they faced for doing so. most sports, people get a lot out of meeting and you know you’re safe within that—and Ebadi said that a review of the country’s constitution and a legal review must each other head-on, the competition. It’s if anything went wrong the ref would call it, be the first steps toward “a civil move- also about physical contact. and stop it, and you would be taken care ment in Iran.” of—I think that is very healing, to create a How does QPW compare with traditional In recent years, Iranian women’s rights space where you can feel aggression and wrestling? activists have been prevented from stag- force and frustration and rage within the Amanda Ruckus: (laughing) We’ve got a ing demonstrations on March 8, with the safe confines of a regulated interaction. bunch of categories: hard-core, soft-core, Islamic republic’s security forces crush- sock wrestling, leg wrestling, arm wrestling, Queer spaces and activities are sometimes ing protests. thumb wrestling and tongue wrestling. challenged by the arrival of straight folks “Beware not to forget your rightful and There’s a point-keeper who adjudicates. who think it’s fabulous and want to be part persistent demand for equal rights in the If you put someone in a pin, or get out of a of that scene but who don’t fully midst of political events,” Ebadi warned pin, you’ll get a point. People get extra understand the context. Are you worried Iranian women. “Equal rights can only be points for getting out of a move in a about success with wider exposure? realized under democratic rule,” she hilarious way. There are lots of ways to get Amanda Ruckus: I’m not nervous about emphasized. extra points for style. We’ve had wig straight people coming and being part of The Iranian opposition has encouraged wrestling, where extra points are awarded the competition. We need diversity within protesters to take to the streets on Tues- for ripping each other’s wigs off. the queer community—queer community days in order to demand the release of Tongue wrestling is the only one that isn’t doesn’t mean everyone’s gay and lesbian. Iranian opposition leaders and to protest refereed. It’s self-reffed. … The participants Queer to me isn’t just about sexual government policies. decide the winner. orientation, it’s about politics. If someone’s How do you manage to create a safe space really stoked about a trans person kicking WOMEN MORE NEWSWORTHY for everybody to wrestle when one of the their ass while wearing fancy spandex The representation of women in the news things you’re doing is crossing over outfits, I think that could be revolutionary. has increased outside of North America, boundaries? That could change their life. So I’m not according to the 2010 Global Media Moni- Amanda Ruckus: Well, there’s more than afraid of straight people coming. toring Project (GMMP), the largest one type of wrestling. Hard-core and soft- Doing public performance helps change longitudinal study on news in the world. core are [alternatives to] having a weight the world, but it is also a risky thing. That’s Overall women’s representation went category. … People get to choose what okay—it makes people question. from 17 percent in 1995 to 24 percent in category they’re in and who they’re You’ve had experience with radical and 2010—a 40 percent increase. However, comfortable wrestling. queer burlesque in Vancouver. How does North American media showed almost no improvement over the 15 years. This year we had someone who’s quite this compare? Women here show up as newsmakers, petite wrestle someone who is quite strong, Amanda Ruckus: For me, doing radical reporters or subjects about 27 percent and they pre-negotiated who would win. It burlesque, there were times when I ended can be fixed like that, and we don’t mind— of the time. up in spaces that weren’t safe at all. I it doesn’t matter. This year’s report by the project found needed a place to change, and there wasn’t If it’s pre-negotiated between two people that at Canadian media outlets, men a safe place, or the audience I was they can lay down their own ground were 2.5 times more likely to be news performing for was sexually harassing me— rules—some people say “don’t touch my subjects, and three times more likely to they were very drunk and feeling entitled to head,” or “don’t touch my ears,” “don’t hold be found in stories about politics and me this way.” There are safe words—the (Continued on page 15) government and celebrity, arts and

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(Continued from page 13) head and having some individual competition. Even though it’s political, it’s my body. Or I was sharing a stage with nelliegrams the act that’s political, not the individual performers who were expressing things I performances. And there’s a ref. was completely offended by, reinforcing sports. Women in the news mostly func- racist stereotypes or misogyny—recreating, How do people get in contact with you if tion as providers of personal accounts, but not having any analysis around, gender they’re interested in participating or and rarely as knowledgeable experts. roles, for example. I felt really responsible to starting a chapter? Less than nine percent of all news sto- any show I was part of, even if I wasn’t Amanda Ruckus: All we have is a Facebook ries had women as their central focus. organizing it. Being affiliated with something page. You can contact us there—Queer Male journalists. were twice as likely to I completely disagreed with felt like I was Park Wrestling, East Van division. We put report on topics that dominated the compromising myself. new events on there. … I’d love to talk to news agenda (crime, violence, politics This is a performance, but it’s just about people about how to do it. It’s pretty simple, and government) compared to female two people or three people going head to just getting the word out. journalists. Only five percent of news stories challenged gender stereotypes. News stories on gender inequality were almost non-existent. The full report Who Makes the News? The Global Media Monitoring Project 2010, along with the Canadian national report REBELLES WITH A CAUSE can be found on the GMMP website, www.whomakesthenews.org. Research in Canada was coordinated by Dr. Kathleen (WINNIPEG) From May 20 to 23, young Cross of Simon Fraser University. feminists will meet in Winnipeg for the second pan-Canadian Rebelles Young AG EQUALITY Feminists Gathering. The event is SAVES LIVES intended to build on the organization’s first Giving women gathering in Montreal in 2008 that drew equal access to 500 participants. land, technology, “We are a growing force,” says Sarah and other agricultural resources could Martens, a member of the organizing reduce the number of hungry people by committee. up to 150 million, according to a UN Martens hopes the gathering makes it food agency. clear that feminism is alive and kicking— The Food and Agriculture Organiza- that the women’s movement in Canada is tion said in a report released in March still relevant. The gathering is intended to that about 925 million people across the empower young women and girls and to globe were undernourished in 2010. mobilize and energize them. The event is More than 98 percent of them live in structured to provide opportunities for par- developing countries. ticipants to develop leadership skills, to Giving women the same financial edu- improve the lives of young women and to cation and resources, including equal help them find ways to make meaningful access to markets, could increase agri- contributions to their communities. cultural production in developing Martens hopes that will lead to the cre- countries and reduce the number of mal- ation of “new strategies to resist and nourished people by an estimated 17 combat patriarchy and other forms of Young feminists will gather in may percent, or by 100 to 150 million people. oppression, as well as create solidarity for Food and Agriculture Organization young feminists across Canada.” Rebelles organizers are seeking dona- Director-General Jacques Diouf said end- The spring gathering will be an opportu- tions to cover the costs of the gathering, ing discrimination against women in nity to “collectivize our struggles and including transportation subsidies (for agriculture is necessary to win the fight create concrete plans for change,” accord- women from rural and Northern communi- against world hunger. ing to Martens. ties for example) as well as funds to provide “Gender equality is not just a lofty While the agenda wasn’t finalized at press French-English and American Sign Lan- ideal, it is also crucial for agricultural time, there is a lot to discuss. Martens cites guage translation and interpretation development and food security,” he said. cuts to social programs and women’s organi- services. Also on the group’s to-do list is Women make up 43 percent on aver- zations in recent years as a major concern. raising money for healthy meals, accommo- age of the agricultural labour force in She points out that male workers continue to dation and space. developing countries, said the report, earn more than their female counterparts and If you or your organization can make a released in Rome on International that 87 percent of reported victims of physi- monetary donation, contact organizer Sarah Women’s Day. Yields on plots managed cal violence and sexual assault are women Granke at [email protected]. Visit the website by women are lower than those managed and girls. The right to reproductive choice is at www.rebelles.org or become a friend of by men due to women’s lack of access to continually under threat she says, and yet the event on Facebook: http://www.face- tools and technology. some people claim that feminism is outdated. book.com/#!/femrev.collective?ref=ts. —NorthWest Asian Weekly

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Nettie Wiebe is energized and strengthened by the garden she keeps, the family she cooks for and the energy of the food movement of which she is a part. her-053 Spring 2011 v24n4.qxp 3/25/11 11:25 PM Page 17

FIELDof REAMS DNETTIE WIEBE ON SLOW FOOD AND FAST CHANGE BY RENÉE BONDY

or nearly 30 years on the Wiebe-Robbins farm in most courageous and hopeful stance to take in a world where Laura, Saskatchewan, an agricultural community near violence is so destructive and so pervasive. That seems to me, F Saskatoon, Nettie Weibe, her husband Jim and their for human survival, the most hopeful stance to take: one of four children have grown organic crops including grains, non-engagement in military and violent endeavours. That is oilseeds and pulse crops. They also raise organic beef. still where I, in my best moments, long to be. I’m a city girl, so when I sat down to interview Wiebe I The peaceful stance is the one we have to take, not only wondered how much we would have much in common. [between] each other, but in our relationship to nature. I Minutes later, we were conversing about environmental think the most troubling and biggest violations that we issues, federal politics, teaching and, of course, food! perpetrate are against the natural systems on which we rely. Wiebe calls herself an agrarian feminist, an identity that For me, environmentalism and spirituality and political merges her commitments to sustainable agriculture, environ- activism are in one place—they have to hold together, they mental ethics and food culture with passionate feminist have to be integrated in order to be meaningful and to ideals. As an environmental activist, writer, university profes- move us forward. sor at St. Andrew’s College at the University of It seems clear that you’ve given the influence of your Mennonite Saskatchewan and federal NDP candidate for the riding of heritage much thought. When did you first realize its importance Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, Nettie wears many hats. But in your life? perhaps the one she wears most proudly is that of farmer. NETTIE WIEBE: For me, the watershed experience was in HERIZONS: You were raised in a large farming family. Tell me a the mid-1970s when a uranium company, Eldorado, with the bit about growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan. provincial government, was contemplating a uranium refin- NETTIE WIEBE: I’m the 12th of 15 children, so the farm ery near our community. Residents were just appalled at the I grew up on was almost a village. We did lots of things possibility that we would have such an industry intruding together—we sang and played sports, and, of course, worked into what was an agricultural area of family farms close to the and worked on that farm! I’ve rarely missed a harvest. South Saskatchewan River. We started to organize at the My parents were the children of Mennonite immigrants, and community level. In a pacifist community, it was very trou- the Mennonite people came to Canada not as individual bling that our neighbourhood would be the source of nuclear families but as whole villages or communities. They something that could be used for weaponry. We put up a big were pacifist groups who fled of necessity. Both the stance of fight against it, and we stopped it! peaceful, harmonious community living as well as the farming For me that was a real lesson in how, as an individual, as a aspect were deeply rooted for many generations in my family. lone voice, you both feel and often are powerless. But as a collective, when you work together for something, you can be How has your Mennonite heritage influenced you personally? surprisingly effective. And that is, in fact, what political NETTIE WIEBE: The pacifism that was so much a part of movements are all about—the possibility of coalescing my traditional old-colony Mennonite roots seems both the around common causes and making a real difference.

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You’ve taken that lesson with you into a number of political arenas. have a wedding or a holiday celebration without food. So at How did it serve you in your work with the National Farmers some level, often not articulated, we are conscious that when Union, particularly in your role as president in the 1990s? we gather together as neighbours and family, food is at the NETTIE WIEBE: When I served as the national president, heart of it. It’s my experience that every time you throw a I was often the only woman in the room. The transportation party, all the guests want to stay in the kitchen with you, and the grains industries are entirely led by males. Agricul- even when you want to shoo them into the next room so you ture is deeply patriarchal. Land ownership and the way the can finish the preparations. The real conversations often farming is structured is very, very patriarchal. Still, those take place in the kitchen! organizations, and the agrarian feminists within them who I We understand the draw and the connection to food as we consider my predecessors, had insisted on the full participa- live it. Certainly, as farmers we’ve been diverted from, and in tion of women in the organization, and when it was formed fact discouraged from, taking note of the beauty, the aesthet- the National Farmers Union had taken that on. I was always ics and the spiritual value of farming. We’ve been so there with the security of knowing that I had been duly propagandized about farming as a business and that prof- elected by my own organization to represent the family farm, itability, productivity and the bottom line is all that counts. and I always felt completely confident doing that, knowing Still, there are many of us who haven’t lost that connection. that on these family farms women are key to the survival of, In your work with La Via Campesina, you meet many like- and the work of the farm. minded people, activists who work toward a more integrated, You cannot have the family farm without women being at sustainable way of life for small-scale farmers. What is your the heart of it all, being equal partners. In the NFU, it’s women involvement with that group today? who often realized and brought to the table the recognition that [farming] isn’t just about the price of barley—it’s about NETTIE WIEBE: La Via Campesina is a global move- being able to live it the countryside, it’s about having services ment of small-scale farm organizations founded in the and a way of life that is protected, as early ’90s in response to interna- well as just making a living. tional trade negotiations. Many “If we start to think more of us realized that changing the Farming and contemporary issues trade rules around agriculture around food production are much clearly and conscientiously was going to affect all of us very more complex than many people from an environmental negatively. It would give the might think. point of view about how international agricultural system NETTIE WIEBE: Yes. Environ- over to the biggest players— mentalism is very closely linked to we eat, tremendous changes transnational corporations and the food we eat. I’ve spoken about it will take place.” agribusiness corporations—and and continue to write and think that was going to affect govern- about the food system we’ve cre- ment policy on agriculture and ated, and how the way most of us shop for food, and how the food production everywhere, from the peasants of Indone- food we’re eating is environmentally extremely damaging. This sia and India to the family farmers in Western Canada. is not so much by choice, but by dint of the system. Water use So, progressive farm organizations gathered together to and soil degradation, and the greenhouse effects of the trans- fight against the liberalization of agricultural trade, and the porting of monoculturally produced products around the takeover of the system by transnational corporations, and the world, are tremendously damaging. So the connection between decimation of all farmer peasant agriculture everywhere in environmentalism and our own breakfast is pretty clear. the world. It was our livelihoods, but it was also for ecologi- And if we start to think more clearly and conscientiously cal reasons and for control over the food system, that we from an environmental point of view about how we eat, deemed it absolutely necessary to speak in our own voice. It tremendous changes will take place, both in how we eat and isn’t that farmers’ voices hadn’t been heard, but mostly it had how healthy we are, but also in how food is produced and been the large farmers, agribusiness, NGOs and government how we relocalize the food we eat. So that’s part of it. representatives who spoke on behalf of farmers. But food is also very much cultural and spiritual in its Since then, La Via Campesina has been an amazing, meaning. It’s the nutrition of our bodies—but also body and miraculous movement in that it has gathered tremendous soul are linked, are together, are one. momentum and made some real differences—although we How we eat and how we think of our food often has a are a long way from where we want to be. But we made some clear implication for the meaning of ourselves, our cultural differences in terms of the kinds of negotiations that have events and our relationships to our neighbours. Every cul- gone on and what kinds of government policies have been ture links food with cultural celebrations—you can’t really pushed through.

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Recently, thousands of delegates in Cochabama in Bolivia, food comes from, and there’s nothing that lets you appreci- joined President Evo Morales and activists at the World ate and understand the miracle, the work and the value of Peoples Conference on Climate Change to talk seriously food more than being a participant in it. So, all of this I about climate change and Mother Earth. The Cochabama watch with great pleasure and hope. meeting was very lively, very progressive and very effective in Of course, there are places that I watch with great chagrin moving forward with the international debate on climate and continuing disappointment, places where we have corpo- change, as opposed to the climate change non-negotiations rate and government collusion to discourage and undermine in Copenhagen in December 2009. local production and small-scale farming. A lot of our agricul- The Via Campesina delegation has put this at the centre ture policy does exactly that. We have regulatory systems that and contributed largely to the discussion about what’s hap- are more and more hostile to small-scale production, and we pening in agriculture. The slogan we use is “Small-Scale favour globalized trade and the corporatization of agriculture. Farmers Can Cool the World.” It’s pretty clear that more Those are very powerful forces; those are not places of hope. biologically diverse, localized, small-scale peasant agricul- Recently, NDP Leader Jack Layton has spoken of the party’s goal ture—agriculture that’s sustainable and resilient—is much to take back the West in the next federal election. How does your less harmful in terms of greenhouse gases, environmental decision to stand as the NDP candidate for the riding of Saska- destruction and climate change than the large-scale, global- toon-Rosetown-Biggar fuel your hope for change? ized monoculture corporate agriculture. By all accounts, La Via Campesina is making a very sub- NETTIE WIEBE: As a person who values democracy and stantial contribution to the discussion on climate change. equality, and as an advocate for women’s rights, ecological That’s just one example of where La Via Campesina and the care and social justice, the NDP is the party whose policy voice of environmentally conscious and socially progressive and processes are the best fit for me. people are intervening on the agriculture front. At the NDP federal council in Ottawa last year, I was invited to speak about rural riding If Canadians want to see what’s issues and campaigns. I empha- going on in our country with regard sized the need to be cognizant of to agricultural sustainability and “There are other large farm just how marginalized and food security issues, where or to whom organizations beginning to exploited rural people often feel, should we look? and I noted that this makes it NETTIE WIEBE: Some of our use the language of, and doubly important to ensure that farm organizations, including the speak in a truncated way, appropriate respect, appreciation one I’m active in, the National about food sovereignty.” and support is forthcoming. Farmers Union, have taken food I have been very pleased at Jack sovereignty as one of its defining Layton’s emphasis on bridging, objectives. And there are other rather than exploiting, presumed large farm organizations beginning to use the language of, differences between rural and urban stances on the gun reg- and speak in a truncated way, about food sovereignty—at istry issue, for example. The simplistic rural/urban divide least insofar as some parts of our agriculture are still domes- politics that the Conservatives play is insulting and misrep- tically controlled and producing for Canadian consumption. resentative. My riding, Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, is That’s a big step in the right direction. considered a priority riding and definitely one we are trying For me, it’s been really, really encouraging that there hard to win. are a growing number of urban people who are weighing in in very effective ways in terms of changing the food market. What gives you the energy and optimism to do all that you do? Farmers’ markets are burgeoning. They’re growing in every NETTIE WIEBE: On a personal level, I find myself ener- part of Canada, in every major urban centre, and even in gized and strengthened by the garden I keep, the family I smaller towns. And as consumers—I don’t like the word cook for, the friends I work with and the energy of the move- consumers—rather, as eaters come looking for another ment of which I am a part. source of food production, then we farmers are encouraged I believe that hope is that possibility that the imaginable is or permitted to change our way of farming and our relation- your outcome. I can always imagine and work for a better ship with the buyers, too. That’s been really encouraging. world. Hope without activism is an empty thing. Hope with- There is also a lot of community gardening going on in out activism atrophies into delusion. Hope, grounded in most major cities, and a lot more backyard gardening, which action and in collective momentum, gives us the possibility means that many more people are growing their own food, or of not only envisaging but moving towards a better world— at least some part of it. It all begins with appreciating where against the current.

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ROOFROOFover their HEADSHEADS CONFERENCE ON HOMELESSNESS WOMEN A FIRST BY VICTORIA BAILEY

The main reason women in Canada become homeless is violence. A May conference in London, Ontario will address homelessness among women.

eth was homeless as a child, as a young woman, and The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), in now as a mother. She knows homeless women often the U.S. and the U.K.’s Homeless Link and Europe’s Feantsa, B feel they are alone and don’t have a voice. But she bring together homelessness service providers in those coun- also believes it’s important that homeless women do have a tries. Although the website www.homelesshub.ca functions as voice. It’s an objective shared by organizers of the first Cana- an online information centre for homelessness researchers and dian conference on women and homelessness, to be held service providers in Canada, a national organization working to from May 9 to 12 in London, Ontario. All Our Sisters alleviate homelessness does not yet exist. National Conference on Women and Homelessness will dis- Inspired by homelessness advocate Susan Scott’s book, All

cuss homelessness with a specific gender focus. Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women Across Canada (Univer- Photo: Getty Images

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Heather McDonald is an information services librarian in London, where she witnessed the daily use of the library by homeless women for many reasons, including as a means of shelter. After reading Scott’s book, McDonald invited her to Ontario to speak to her colleagues about better serving homeless female clients. “The library is a go-to place for a community, including homeless people, for whatever they might need, even a place to rest,” McDonald explains. “I had heard Susan speak at a book launch, and so contacted her publisher to ask if she could provide awareness and compassion training to library staff.” Other speaking appointments were arranged for Scott with groups in the London area. “We kept her very busy,” McDon- ald admits—so busy, in fact, that those involved decided to continue their discussion and develop a strategy in response. The concept of the All Our Sisters Conference was born. With women and children making up the fastest-growing sector of the homeless population in Canada, a key compo- nent of the All Our Sisters conference is that it is not only about, but for homeless women. “It’s like trying to build a house without an architect—you need to know the structure and blueprint of your building to be successful,” says Beth. Women who have experienced homelessness are on the conference organizing committee. “We often try to solve without fully understanding the issue,” McDonald explains. “We’re giving women the chance to make decisions for themselves and to be involved at all levels of planning.” Due to a lack of reliable data, estimates of homelessness in Canada range from 150,000 to 300,000 people, with no one certain how many homeless women there actually are. Women experiencing homelessness in Canada are typically divided into two categories: visible and hidden. Visible refers to the women who access shelters or who simply “sleep rough” outdoors. These are the women you are more likely to see. The term “hidden” is used to describe all other women who don’t turn up in homeless counts and shelter numbers. It includes those staying with friends or relatives and those who stay in an unsafe residence where they are subjected to domestic violence. However, when women seek shelter, traditional facilities are often unsuitable. Many co-ed shelters were created for men by sity of Toronto Press, 2007), Canadian women with lived men to meet men’s needs, and so not only do they not best suit experience of homelessness, support agencies and engaged women’s needs, but women commonly perceive them as dan- individuals will come together at the conference. For Beth gerous environments. The main reason women in Canada (who did not want her last name used) the creation of the become homeless is violence. The YWCA of Calgary reports conference and the inclusiveness of its title are significant. that domestic violence is the second-largest health issue for “If we cannot belong to a place, we can belong to each women in Canada, and that an overwhelming fear of poverty or other,” she explains. “Women, typically more so than men, are homelessness are the top reasons women return to an abusive naturally more communal and cooperative. There’s strength partner. As Scott explains in her book, women in mixed shelters in numbers and knowing that they’re not alone.” say they are hit on by men there, and feel threatened around

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Homeless women have unique needs that are not addressed in a co-ed system. Photos by Susan Scott, from her book, All Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women Across Canada.

men. “It is important to remember that unless a woman feels experience higher rates of sexual assault, stalking, spousal safe, she cannot begin to work on her issues,” Scott says. assaults and spousal homicide than men. In 2004 the National Anti-Poverty Organization’s study on Homelessness affects every part of a woman’s health and homelessness reported that “Virtually all long-term homeless well-being—from being emotionally humiliated by having women have histories of familial, intimate and street victimiza- to ask male shelter staff for tampons or sanitary pads, to tion…. Personal safety and privacy are the primary concerns of dying at a higher rate than women who have homes. As homeless women when it comes to finding shelter.” reported in the April 2004 edition of the Canadian Medical Women often avoid many shelter options, seeking out Journal, “The risk of death among younger homeless women what seem like safer alternatives such as friends’ homes or is 5 to 30 times higher than the risk among their housed park grounds, and so they are not picked up by conventional counterparts.” A joint study into the impact of homelessness methods of homelessness measurement. on women’s health conducted by non-profit group Sistering, Beth found herself staying on the couches and floors of an organization that serves homeless, marginalized and low- family friends as a child as a direct result of domestic violence income women in Toronto, and Street Health, an caused by her father. Her mother had left her father and had organization working to improve the health and well-being taken Beth and her siblings to what she thought was a safe of homeless and under-housed individuals in Toronto, found place. Beth’s father found them and shot her mother’s that the women they surveyed suffered from mental illness at boyfriend. The boyfriend survived the shooting, but the land- double the rate of homeless men, and that 84 per cent had at lord evicted Beth’s family because of what had happened. least one serious physical health condition—again, a rate Scott explains that when women leave an abusive home for higher than that of homeless men. the safety a domestic violence shelter offers, they often don’t Complicating the issue of personal health and safety is consider themselves homeless. that fact that many of these women are enduring the symp- “Many women do not consider themselves homeless. They toms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). Research has quite literally do not have a home of their own, and once they found that when exposed to trauma, women are more likely leave the domestic violence shelter, they may never have a to suffer from PTSD and are four times more likely to suf- safe place again. Not only do they leave most of their mate- fer from long-term PTSD effects than men. rials possessions behind, but many … are also entering a life Scott acknowledges that while homeless men have often of poverty so dire that they return to the abuser, or they experienced traumatic events, it seems to happen more fre- become effectively homeless, sleeping on friends’ and rela- quently and to be more severe for women. “Women are tives’ floors.” typically more physically vulnerable and therefore more at Research shows that three-quarters of women in Canada risk of trauma and its effects, and trauma does all kinds of do not report occurrences of abuse. Women continue to things in terms of how we see the world—for example,

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how you might feel as a woman in a predominantly also a disparity in the ways in which homeless men and male shelter.” women can generate an income. As Scott explains, “It’s Shelter use by homeless women has increased since 1990, easier for men to get work as a casual labourer whereas yet an unequal perception of male and female clients contin- even if a woman is waitressing she needs to maintain a cer- ues. The 2004 NAPO study claims that homeless men are tain level of personal hygiene. It is much more difficult for considered to be “failed men who cannot support them- homeless women to find legitimate work.” selves,” whereas homeless women are perceived as “dependent Poverty has increased gradually for women over the last and needy.” Scott echoes this disparity in the introduction of two decades, and a wage gap still exists between male and her book, observing, “When we think of the homeless we female full-time workers in Canada. A 2004 Canadian Asso- tend to think of men.” She notes that if a man leaves home, ciation of Social Workers report found that women continue it’s almost seen as heroic—he’s going on an Odysseus-type to be among the poorest of the poor in Canada: 2.4 million quest or living rough like Robin Hood. Yet for women, so compared to 1.9 million men. The report also found that much of their identity is tied up in their home. They are the family status greatly affected a woman’s risk of poverty with homemakers who “keep the home fires burning.” 42 per cent of unattached women aged 18 to 64 lived in Marina Giacomin, a social worker and the vice-president of poverty, compared to 12 per cent in families. A greater risk programs and innovations with the Calgary Homeless Founda- or realization of poverty not only makes women more likely tion, says homeless women in Calgary have repeatedly told her to become homeless, but also hinders them from becoming that they don’t fit within the current shelter system. Another tenants or homeowners on their own. significant element of homelessness for many women is the The upcoming conference seems to be creating an oppor- protection of, and provision for, their children. tunity for realistic change. McDonald insists that any “Many women are afraid to ask for help, as there is a big fear national housing initiative must include a gender-sensitive of having their children appre- lens on all services and pro- hended,” says Scott, “especially if grams. Susan Scott has similar issues of addiction are involved. “Many women are afraid to aspirations for the conference, “As a child it’s very frightening ask for help, as there is a big hoping it will make both men to be homeless, says Beth “You’re and women across Canada aware not in control, and when you look fear of having their children of women experiencing outright around you and realize you are apprehended.”—Susan Scott homelessness, as well as those homeless, you feel like the adults teetering on the edge of it. aren’t in control, either.” Scott also hopes the conference, “enables women experienc- With 80 per cent of single-parent families in Canada ing homelessness a means of communicating what they need in headed by women, the needs of a homeless mother, or order to become contributing citizens of Canadian society, and mother-to-be, differ greatly from those of a single man. allow service providers to both find support and share pertinent These women have to provide not only for themselves but best practices.” for their family. As the NAPO report also states, “It is Beth concurs with Scott’s goals. She wants women to beyond question that women with young children are most have the opportunity to share an understanding of their particularly vulnerable to impoverishment.” hopes and dreams and aspirations, looking beyond simply Poverty and homelessness have a complex and, at times, being homeless. As she explains, “Once people are housed toxically co-dependent relationship, one often riding on the and their basic needs are met, they can look beyond survival coattails of the other. And there are factors of the experience mode and maybe look toward education, or volunteering, or that are distinct for women. Several years ago when Beth left working again.” her abusive husband, he threatened to kill her if she This is the first national All Our Sisters conference, but attempted to claim half the value of the house or if she Scott believes that before a 2012 conference, theoretically at demanded child support. “I believed that he was capable of least, political change could occur. “I’d like to see a national doing it,” she explains, “so I went downtown and took my housing policy again, and social assistance become enough name off of the deed of the house and walked away, staying to live on.” with friends until I found my own place again.” Whatever the outcome of the conference may be, the The NAPO report states that, “Men’s poverty is linked voices of women sharing their stories and insights, and inge- directly to low wages in the labour market. Women’s nuity are expected to be the highlight. poverty is more complex and relates not only to the labour “A society is only as strong as its stories,” explains Beth, “If market but to women’s activities as caregivers.” There is we don’t tell our stories they get lost and forgotten.”

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Eagle Dancer, by Daphne Odjig, 1977; serigraph, AP; collection of the Kamloops In Tune With the Infinite, by Daphne Odjig, 2004; serigraph, 12/100; collection of the Kam- Art Gallery. loops Art Gallery.

The Evil Spell, by Daphne Odjig, 1975; serigraph, AP; Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery.

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Firebrand DaphneARTIST INFLUENCED BY PABLO PICASSO, DAPHNE ODJIG HAS INSPIRED GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS OdjigBY JANN L.M. BAILEY IN CANADA.

aphne Odjig’s career as an artist and her ongoing work as an advocate for Aboriginal artists, women D and children has been a lifelong story of inspiration. Self-taught, Odjig assimilated the pictorial styles of the Anishnabe and Coast Salish traditions along with cubist and surrealist influences. Her work has been defined by highly expressive organic shapes, undulating lines, bold outlining, abstracted figuration and an unsurpassed sense of colour. A master of two-dimensional representation, Odjig explores the fields of painting, drawing and printmaking. Producing balanced compositions that are often geometric in nature, she relies on her trademark style of elegantly inter- weaving a multitude of ovoid shapes, encompassing a human figure and flattened perspective, along with a lyrical cadence of swirling line and colour. Bob Boyer, who, along with Carol Podedworny wrote Odjig: The Art of Daphne Odjig, 1960–2000, suggests Odjig was attracted to the cubist style because of its “disregard for perspectival space, its skewing of the elements and relationships of reality, and its central compositional structure.” Indeed, she may have seen that these modern European art movements reflected a reality, a way of interpreting the world, that resonated with Aboriginal traditions, and allowed her to break through the colonialism implicit in the Western realist tradition. Daphne Odjig has expanded the vocabulary of visual art in Canada. (Photo: CP Images)

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“If my work as an artist has somehow helped to open doors between our people and the non-native community, then I am glad. I am even more deeply pleased if it has helped to encourage the young people that have followed our generation to express their pride in our heritage more openly, more joyfully than I would have ever dared to think possible.”—Daphne Odjig

Throughout her career, Odjig has been radical in address- grandfather Jonas Odjig. Fervent in her studies, she continued ing issues of colonization, the displacement of Aboriginal to investigate the work of Emily Carr among others and to re- peoples, and the status of Aboriginal women and children, explore her native roots. Tragically, Somerville died in a car bringing Aboriginal political issues to the forefront of con- accident in 1960, plunging Odjig further into her work. temporary art practices and theory. In 1963, after a move to northern Manitoba with her sec- Odjig was born and raised on the Wikwemikong Reserve ond husband, Odjig witnessed the difficult lives of on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. The oldest of four surviving indigenous people who had been uprooted from their homes. children of Dominic Odjig, a member of the Pottawatomi Odjig documented the changes and the people in her Series nation, and Joyce Peachey, an English war bride, Daphne of the North. Her fearlessness in portraying the reality of moved with her siblings to her grandmother’s house after Canada from an Aboriginal perspective has set a standard for the death of her mother. Here, her first encounter with expanding the vocabulary of contemporary visual art practice prejudice caused her to conceal her First Nations identity in our country. for many years. Odjig’s experiences as a native woman coming into her Not until 1945, when Odjig married Paul Somerville, did own during the volatile 1960s, when Aboriginal artists she begin to explore once again her deep-rooted interest in art, were beginning to investigate their ethnicity, greatly an interest that began while drawing and painting with her inspired her work. Like many artists of the Woodland

The Indian in Transition, by Daphne Odjig, 1979; acrylic on canvas; collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Photo: copyright Canadian Museum of Civilization, III-M-15, IMG2008-0624-0001-Dm.

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School, she began to interpret the legends and stories of personal boundaries and create work which incorporated her her people. But Odjig soon found that limiting, since she deep-seated interest in women, families and spirituality. wanted to explore her own narrative and share, through Although Odjig worked with, and was friends with mem- her work, her own unique experiences. bers of the Woodland School, she found more affinity with As Odjig continued to explore and develop her own voice, the group that she helped form, the Professional Native she took part in her first solo exhibition in 1967 at the Indian Artists Association, often called the Indian Group of Lakehead Art Centre in Port Arthur, Ontario. In 1970 she Seven. Along with Jackson Beardy, Alex Janvier, Norval exhibited at the Canadian Pavilion at Expo in Osaka, Japan, Morrisseau, Carl Ray, Joseph Sanchez and Eddy Cobiness, and in 1972, along with Jackson Beardy and Alex Janvier, Odjig worked tirelessly to promote the group and change the she was included in a pivotal exhibition, Treaty Number 23, way the visual arts community regarded Aboriginal artists. 287 and 1171, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. This momen- Like everyone in the group, Odjig wanted their work to be tous show was the first time a Canadian exhibition acknowledged for its artistic merits, not simply for its comprised solely of Aboriginal artists was featured in a pub- “nativeness.” This has remained her lifelong aspiration. lic art gallery. One of Odjig’s most outstanding works is the mural The This was an intense time for Odjig. She created an out- Indian in Transition (1978), commissioned by the National standing and prolific body of work, opened her own gallery, Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civiliza- was an advocate for Aboriginal art and women, and com- tion). The painting is so large (8' high by 27' long) she had pleted several major commissions. She also completed an to rent a house in which to paint it. It symbolizes the polit- outstanding series of works on Manitoulin Island depicting ical and cultural revitalization of her people and was the the stories and beliefs of Aboriginal people, as well as a dar- largest canvas painted by a Canadian Aboriginal artist to ing series of erotic images to illustrate the book Tales from the that date. Smokehouse, which, when exhibited, was censored and closed Lee-Ann Martin, curator of contemporary Canadian down by the police. She was commissioned by the El Al air- Aboriginal art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, line to produce works on the Holy Land, titled the Jerusalem describes The Indian in Transition in this way: Series (1975–76). Her trip to Israel had a profound and last- “The Indian in Transition takes the viewer on an historical ing effect on her and was the impetus to continue to push odyssey that begins before the arrival of Europeans, contin-

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Pow-Wow Dancer, by Daphne Odjig, 1978; serigraph, AP; collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery.

Thunderbird Woman, by Daphne Odjig, 1973; serigraph, 13/48; Collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery. Enfolding, by Daphne Odjig, 1992; serigraph, 1/100; collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery.

ues through the devastation and destruction of Aboriginal Over the course of five decades, Odjig has participated in cultures, and ends on an expression of rejuvenation and numerous group and solo exhibitions, including a major hope. Odjig’s story unfolds with the figure on the left play- print retrospective in 2005 organized by the Kamloops Art ing the drum, which symbolizes strong Aboriginal cultural Gallery when she was in her late 80s, and a retrospective traditions, while overhead is a protective Thunderbird. exhibition of her drawings and paintings organized by the Then a boat arrives filled with pale-skinned people. The Art Gallery of Sudbury in association with the National boat’s bow becomes a serpent, a bad omen in Anishnabe Gallery of Canada in 2007. mythology,” she explains. Odjig’s work has undergone many transitions. She has “Next, Odjig depicts Aboriginal people trapped in a vortex received numerous honorary degrees, awards and interna- of political, social, economic and cultural change. Four ethe- tional accolades. But at the heart of this engaging real figures rise above the fallen cross and broken drums and gracious woman is a passion for life, a thirst for knowl- against a background of a bureaucratic symbol of authority. edge and a spirit that has influenced and revitalized To the right, a figure, protectively sheltering the sacred the political and creative landscape of generations of drum, struggles free, under the protection of the Thunder- Canadian artists. bird and the eye of Mother Earth depicted in the top left. Jann L.M. Bailey is executive director of the Kamloops Art Odjig ends the story as it began, with a message of hope and Gallery and curator of the national touring exhibition Daphne mutual understanding for the future.” Odjig: Four Decades of Prints. 28 SPRING 2011 HERIZONS her-053 Spring 2011 v24n4.qxp 3/25/11 11:26 PM Page 29

International Conference on Motherhood, Activism, Advocacy and Agency May 12-14, 2011 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada

Features 17 keynotes speakers, 100+ presenters, and 35 panels over 3 days on topics including Motherhood and Activism; Maternal Agency; Empowering Mothers; Motherhood and Advocacy Work; Mothering and Identity and much much more!

Keynote addresses by: Cindy Sheehan, Peace and Social Justice Advocate Gayle Brandeis, National Staff, CODEPINK: Women for Peace Tara Brettholtz, President, Mothers and More Cheli English-Figaro, President Emerita of Mocha Moms, Inc. Rachel Epstein, Coordinator, Sherbourne Health Centre’s LGBTQ Parenting Network Robbie Davis-Floyd, University of Texas, Austin, author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage Ariel Gore, founding editor of Hip Mama, author of Whatever, Mom: Hip Mama’s Guide to Raising a Teenager Fiona J. Green, University of Winnipeg, author of Feminist Mothering in Theory and Practice, 1985-1995 Diana Gustafson, Memorial University, author of Unbecoming Mothers Pat Gowens, founder of Welfare Warriors, editor of Mother Warriors Voice Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President, Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, President, Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) and more!

Young Mothers and Empowerment Forum (free and open to the public) May 11-12, 2011, Hyatt Regency Hotel (King Street), Toronto, Canada

Features 25 presentation by young mothers, academics, graduate students, advocates, and agencies speaking about Young Mothers and Empowerment and addressing critical issues of agency, advocacy, health and education.

The Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) is the newly launched feminist schol- arly and activist organization on mothering-motherhood, developed from the former Association for Research on Mothering at York University (1998-2010). The initiative houses the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative (formerly The Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering), Mother Outlaws, The International Mothers Network, The Young Mothers Empowerment Project, The Motherhood Studies Forum and is partnered with Demeter Press.

For conference registration and ticket information: Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) 140 Holland St. West, Post Ofﬁce Box 13022, Bradford ON L3Z 2Y5 Tel: (905) 775-5215 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org

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Joanne Abbensetts Renee Bondy Lynn Cockburn Christine Dol Joan Frommer Wendy Hovdestad Wendy Abendschoen Pamela Booker / D. Lee Connell Suzanne Dollheiser Karen Fry Deborah Hudson Bev Agar Dovona West Valerie Connell Donna Dorosh Web Future Wendy Hunt Alice Ages Nancy Bowes K.Virginia Coleman Jean Douglas-Webb Esther Fyk Winnie Hunt Jackie Allen Susan Boyd Sarah Colquhoun Carolyn Dowell Karen Galler Leanne Hurlburt Laurie Anderson Margaret Boyce Ray Comeau Kristine Drakich Lee Gauthier Karen Hurley Jan Andrews Alissa Brandt Joy Cowell Catherine Duchastel Susan Genge Janice Inglis Arlene Anisman B. Braude Ruth-Anne Craig Monique Dumont Jennifer Gibbs Val Innes Wayne Antony Joanna Dunbar Janine Gibson Doreen Irving Dianne Archer “Herizons is a consistently engaging and Judith Dunlop Margaret Gillett Pat Israel Kelly Arndt provocative read, re-inventing itself as Elizabeth Duff Ginny Gonneau Candice Jackson Jane Aronson time goes by.”—Judy Rebick, author Nicole Dupuis Sarah Gose Nancy Jackson Transforming Power Diana Aspen Bette Durst Dolores Gosselin Pamela Jackson Laura Atkinson Ann Dyble Jean Graham Don T. James Jennifer Ayer Allison Brewer Joan Crainford Heather Dyment Sonja Greckol Dorothy Janes Kate Ayotte MacKenzie Brooks Melody Crane Ann Eastman Fiona Green Sarah Jensen BT Canada Laura Brown Ruth Crawford Suzanne Edgar Lorraine Gregson Audrey Johnson Madeleine Bachand Michelle Brown Rean Cross Wendy Elliott Virginia Grinevitch Olive Johnson Eliz Ball Pearl Brown Rachel Crowder Roberta Engel Joanne Grout Kathleen Jones-Lepidas Bonnie Baker Rai Brown Judith Crawley Annemarie Etsell Janet Grover Hilary Kaler Colette Balcaen Mary Smirle Bruce Inez Curl Brigitte Evering Nancy Guberman Lois Kamenitz / Joan Bams Patricia Brush Violet Cushon Davilyn Eyolfson Genevieve Guindon Paula J. Scott Cara Banks Nancy Buchanan Alexina Dalgetty Jenny Farkas Gio Guzzi Sheila Kappler / Nancy Barner Ruth Bulmer Denise Davies Elaine Filax CC Hale-Macart Theresa O’Donovan Kristine Barr Wendy Burton Jennifer Davis Gloria Filax Judith Hammill Laura Kauder–Wolloch Heather Barrie Joanne Bury Joan Dawkins Terre Flower Donna Hansen Margaret Keefe Sally Batstone Shannon Cameron Angela Day Sydney Foran Debra Hathaway Else Kennedy Annette Beauvais Carolyn Campbell Sonja De Pauw Susan Ford Nina K. Herman Nicole Kennedy Jennifer Beeman Helen Castonguay Susan Dempsey Jan Forde Laurie Hill Ursula Kernig Marilynne Bell Jade Chambers Irene Deschenes Kim Fordham Sandra Hoeppner Kathleen Kilburn Ellen Bell / Marlene Milne Cheryl Champagne Cynthia Devine Anne Forest Sarah Hodgson Sally Kimpson Anne Bennett Allison Chapman Emma Dickson Louise Forsyth Brook Holdack Alyson King Lynne Bingham Michele Chappas Margot Diehl Barbara Freeman Becky Hollingsworth Bonnie Klein Sallie Bingham Joanne Charron Linda Disbrowe Frances Friesen Kathleen Holmwood Marieke Klop Kimberly Block Christine Chevalier Linda Doctoroff Janice Frizell Geoffrey Honey Terry Knight her-053 Spring 2011 v24n4.qxp 3/25/11 11:26 PM Page 31

Future for Herizons

Tamara Knox Neire Mercer Sharon Redmond Angela Smith Margaret Stephens Aniko Varpalotai Esther Korchynski Joan Merrifield Val Regehr Muriel Smith Anne Stewart Maureen Vescio Ellen Kristjanson Constantina Metaxas Katherine Reed Thorin Smith Mary C. Stewart Evelyn Violini Ellen Kruger Doreen Meyer Sharon Reiner Marilyn Snelling Randa Stewart Vicki Vopni Anita Lahey Lina Medaglia Miller Kim Renders Sandra Snooks Virginia Stikeman Jennifer Waelti-Walters Marie Laing Christina Mills Eva Reti Cathy Soubliere Sharon-dale Stone Lori Wanamaker Roselyne Lambert Mary Milne Ellen Reynolds Penelope Squires Claire Sylvan Jennifer Watt Ronald Lancaster Dawn Mitchell Laurie Reynolds Antoinette Spoor Beverly Suek Betty Watts Ann Landrey Penni Mitchell Lynne Supeene Susan Wendell Dianne Landry Mary Moreland Bethany Sutton R. van Weringh “Herizons challenges us to evolve our Michele Landsberg Emily Morino Caroline Taylor Susan White feminist values and put them into Patricia Lane Gail Mountain Katherine Tate Shelley Wickabrod action. The magazine tracks, with Lisa Lasagna Gail Mounteer Pamela Terry Harolyn Wilson seismographic sensitivity, our joy over Martha Laurence Judy Moynihan Iris Tetford Rita Wong progress and our outrage over backsliding.” Janine Laurencin Leslie Muir —Wendy Robbins, recipient of the Mary Thomas Elaine Wright L. A. Lavoie Audrey Myers Governor General Persons Award Glanda Todd Susan Wurtele Karen LeBlanc Kemlin Nembhard Terry Toews Miriam Wyman Shirley LeBrasseur Elizabeth Neve Mary Trafford Deborah Yaffe Bev LeFrancois Evie Newton Vicki Rhodes Sylvia Spring Linda Tupin Gail Youngberg Maryse Lepage Linda Nichols Jillian Ridington Barbro Stalbecker- Verna Turner Carol Zavitz Linda J. Lee Betty Nickerson Janet Riehm Pountney Rian van Bruggen Lisa Zigler / Judy Lightwater Karen Nielsen Bev Ritza Mary Beth Stacey Cheryl van Daalen-Smith Tree Walsh Ruth Lillington A-Lynne Nilsson Sandy Roberts Marie Sternberg leneke VanHouten Carly Ziniuk Fiona Lindsay Valerie Hoshizaki Nordin Joan Robillard Ursula Stetter Gail Vanstone Kathryn Zwick Ursula Litzcke Kathleen Norman Wendy Robbins Vanita Lokanathan Dianne Oberg Krista Robson Bev Lowsley/ Francine Odette Margerit Roger Linda Cunningham Margaret Oldfield Laurel Rolland E. Jane Luce Jan Padgett Susan Romaniuk Thelma McGillivray Barbara Pal Blanche Roy Tara McParland Arlean Pare/ Tziporah Russell Lesley MacDonald Chris Fox Flora Russell Yes! Sign Me Up As a Herizons Pamela MacDonald Heather Parrott-Howdle Joan Ryan Sustaining Subscriber. Sandra MacDonald Denise Pauls Cy-Thea Sand Lori MacIntyre Sharon Pchajek Britt Santowski I authorize Herizons to withdraw: Shauna MacKinnon Joyce Peachey Elizabeth Sarin $5 $8 $10 $15 Other each month. Josha MacNab Deirdre Pearson Jocelyn Saskiw Susan MacPhail Patricia Pedersen Sandra St. Germain I enclose a cheque marked “VOID;” or Elise Maltin Holly Penner/ Marnie Schaetti Credit Card Contribution as follows: Heather Maroney Diane Silverthorne Cat Schick Michelle Mawhinney Tracey Peter Joan Scott No. ______Exp. ______Beverly Peters Sara Mayo Caroline Schaillee Name: ______Suzette Mayr Patricia Petruga Agatha Schwartz Susan Mayrand/ Paula Philp Joan Schwartzenberger Address: ______Mary McCosham Janyt Piercy Charlene Senn Heather McAfee Nirmala Pitt Sandra Setter City / Town: ______Mary Ann McCarthy Sylvia Pivko Donna Sharkey Sandra McCauley Joanna Plater Donna Sharon Province: ______Postal Code: ______Audrey McClellan Nancy Poole Barb Shaw Phone:______Gail McColl Marg Powell JoAnne Sherin Ashley McGhee Jacqueline Preyde Margaret Shkimba Email: ______Selma McGorman J.C. Prior Harold Shuster Susan McGrath Erminia Profiri Muriel Sibley I understand that my subscription will not expire as long as Debra McIntyre Kathleen Quinn Melanie Sicotte I am a Sustaining Subscriber and that I may cancel this Melanie McIntyre Samantha-Lee Quinn Sylvia Sigurdson agreement at any time. Mary McKim Mary-Beth Raddon Joan Simeon Nancy McKinnell Helen Ramirez Ruth Simkin Send your authorization, (‘VOID’ cheque) to: Robin McNabb Jean Rands Chris Sinding Herizons Sustaining Subscribers Marilou McPhedran Pat Rasmussen Ann Sitch PO Box 128, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3C 2G1 Sue Melville Carol Reader Tara Sketchley Check if applicable: Do not publish my name on this page. Heather Menzies Nalini Reddy Lynn Sloane her-053 Spring 2011 v24n4.qxp 3/25/11 11:26 PM Page 32

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TRAPS TO AVOID When You Volunteer 5OVERSEAS BY KATIE PALMER

few years ago, I travelled to Southeast Asia to vol- get used to you. As a new volunteer, watch the local staff, see unteer at a rehabilitation center for survivors of how they do things and accept how things are done there.” A child-sex tourism. I was an inexperienced and idealistic 22-year-old convinced that I could change the TRAP #1: Be Quick to Judge Others world—in just three weeks! I was confident in my opin- One afternoon in Southeast Asia, at a rehabilitation centre for ions and was quite willing to share them with the locals. survivors of child-sex tourism, I accompanied 15 young girls I took a few missteps along the way and after talk- and several staff members to the pond where teenagers did ing to international development experts in many laundry. During a lunch break, the head supervisor asked a few countries, I discovered I was not alone. girls to pluck her armpit hair as she rested on a picnic table. Radchada Chomjinda, executive director of With tweezers in hand, the girls cheerfully took up the task. Human Help Network Thailand, has been working I was so appalled that I snapped pictures as evidence that I with international volunteers for nearly two could take to the executive director of the organization. decades. She says it’s common for problems to A few days passed before I finally had a moment to share emerge when cultures and expectations collide. my accounts with the director. After I did, he gently “Problems can arise if the volunteers are all from explained that while it may have seemed appalling to me, the one country,” she says. “For many years, the major- act of plucking someone’s hair is not only a grooming prac- ity of volunteers coming to help us in [Pattaya, tice but also a bonding experience among women and Thailand] were from one Scandianvian country. children in many Philippine villages. Many were of the opinion that the way things were done in their own country was right and if it was not TRAP #2: Flaunt Your Privilege done their way, then it was wrong.” The Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) sends more The issue is also complicated by money and owner- than a dozen young Canadians each year on internships ship, Chomjinda explains. funded by the Canadian International Development Agency “If funding is received from a country where the major- (CIDA). CAPI advises its interns to be aware of their privi- ity of volunteers are from, then some of the volunteers leges as a Canadian intern. CAPI also informs its interns actually think ‘It is our money, so it should be done our way,’ that privilege comes in many different shapes and sizes, as I which is very frustrating for us.” soon learned. There are, for instance, economic, social, citi- One way to alleviate an I-know-best attitude is for organ- zenship and civic forms of privilege. izations to recruit volunteers from a range of nationalities. One day, I accompanied the girls and staff members to an That way, the volunteers recognize that their way of doing off-site charity event for orphaned girls and boys in the Philip- things is not necessarily practised in all developed countries, pines. The heat that day was excruciating, so I bought lots of but perhaps just theirs. pop and water to help me cool down throughout the day. Chomjinda also has advice for international volunteers: From my perspective, beverages in this remote town were “Take your time at new projects. Rather than trying to become really inexpensive. For instance, rather than paying a dollar

Illustration: Cindy Revell best friends with the local staff, stand back and let the local staff for a bottle of water, I paid the equivalent of a quarter. It

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wasn’t until the girls and staff members started teasing me toms hinders interpersonal relations, and ultimately your about my wealth and asking that I buy them drinks that I task. It is important and respectful to take time to learn realized I’d been inadvertently flaunting my privilege. What about the customs of any organization you may volunteer I failed to take into consideration was that the girls and staff with, whether they are abroad or in your home country. members were limited as to when they could drink water. Unlike me, who bought water and even pop whenever I was TRAP #4: Expect Locals to be Grateful thirsty, the girls and staff members were given water at semi- The Preda Foundation provides street children, child sur- regular intervals by the organizers of the charity event. I was vivors of sex tourism, and boys who have been falsely oblivious to their experience. convicted of crimes in the Philippines with vocational train- Sometimes it is hard to recognize your privilege, especially if ing and rehabilitation. The hope is that they can become you are struggling to make ends meet, or have large student productive members of society. Preda welcomes international loans waiting back home for you. However, it’s important to volunteers, particularly lawyers, social workers, engineers and understand that most of us in a position to volunteer overseas doctors, for anywhere between three weeks and 12 months. from countries like Canada, the U.S., England, live in countries Shay Cullen, executive director of Preda, says volunteers whose own international policies often facilitate exploitative must be made aware that they will not be placed on a and unequal global relations between developed and develop- pedestal. He has them sign a declaration of commitment ing countries. before their arrival. Not only is it important to be sensitive about your global “There is no special status for volunteers,” he insists. “They class status, it is even more important to be generous. Treat will be doing the work alongside Preda staffers, just as if they your local friends once in a while. A little act of kindness are apprentices. They must accept their humble status as they goes a long way. have no experience, language skills or cultural skills in this environment.” International volunteers do not know every- TRAP #3: Ignore Local Customs thing—in fact we know very little—and ought to follow the There are a lot of differences between the ways in which lead of the staff members in an organization. Westerners manage their time and view their work habits compared to many in Southeast Asia. When I recently trav- TRAP #5: Anticipate Rapid Change elled to Cambodia with a colleague from a Canadian NGO, I As I write this article, I am looking out my apartment win- learned how important those differences are. dow in metro Manila. I see dozens of squatter settlements, We visited several anti-trafficking organizations in Phnom colourful jeepneys driving along the pothole-ridden roads Penh to learn how they are helping survivors of child-sex and countless other signs of mass poverty. tourism. Specifically, we wanted to study their vocational Last November when I returned to the Philippines as a training and rehabilitation services. My colleague and I project officer at the Center for Migrant Advocacy on a interviewed one of the senior leaders in order to gain greater CIDA-funded grant, I fully recognized that in my five insights into problem of sex trafficking. months here I would not eradicate poverty, nor would I nec- We began the interview at 10:00 in the morning, and my essarily make the world a better place for the millions of colleague and I didn’t think to stop the interview for a lunch people who live here. break. We pressed on, wanting to find out everything we Since my initial trip to Southeast Asia, I have been back a could. However, stopping for a two-hour lunch break is an number of times to volunteer with organizations that focus integral part of Cambodians’ workday. During their two on supporting survivors of child-sex tourism. Each time I hours, they share a variety of dishes and also build collegial volunteer, I continue to realize how little I know. work relationships. What I have learned, however, is that we can effect small, To tell you the truth, our interview subject hinted to us incremental changes in our everyday choices and actions. We that he was hungry, but we didn’t pick up on it. And he can be the change we wish to see. We may not see the imme- didn’t assert his needs because it is characteristic of diate signs of change, but as international volunteers, we Cambodians not to do so. have both an opportunity to help and an obligation to learn After learning of our error, my colleague and I made sure from those we spend time with. to stop for lunch breaks for the remainder of our trip. The It is clearer to me now, too, that my Western ideas and moral of this story is that failing to participate in local cus- standards are not necessarily global ones.

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arts culture MUSIC

MAIKO WATSON KIRAN AHLUWALIA LET ENGLAND SHAKE SWEET VIBRATION AAM ZAMEEN: COMMON GROUND PJ HARVEY Labeame Records Outside Vagrant Records REVIEW BY ANNA LAZOWSKI REVIEW BY ANNA LAZOWSKI REVIEW BY BRITTANY SHOOT Winnipeg’s Maiko Watson took her first The first song on Kiran Ahluwalia’s latest British rocker PJ Harvey is perhaps less shot at the music business after success- album, Aam Zameen: Common Ground, sets overtly feminist than her fans may desire. fully competing on a music reality show the tone for the project. “Mustt Mustt” is a Throughout her career, she’s consistently called Popstars. She and the four other classic by world-renowned Pakistani musi- shunned the f-word, maintaining that it female singers that came out on top were cian Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and is from the doesn’t apply to her, that her gender has put together as the group Sugar Jones. South Asian Islamic tradition, while caused her no great difficulty, and that the Though they only released one album Ahluwalia’s collaborators happen to be gender imbalance in the male-dominated together, they did produce a few radio hits Muslims from Mali. Featuring Terakaft and music industry is a talent-based coinci- before they went their separate ways, pur- Tinariwen, Common Ground furthers dence rather than a symptom of sexism. suing solo projects. Ahluwalia’s interest in working with musi- Still, for her songs about maintaining inde- Until now, Watson has stayed out of the cians from different backgrounds. pendence, duets with Radiohead’s Thom spotlight, crafting her return with a dynamic She’s previously mingled Indian and Yorke and her commitment to trying new solo record that showcases her vocal tal- Portugese fado music, teamed up with styles and sounds on every album in her 20- ents. All but one of the tracks on Sweet Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster year career, feminist fans adore her. Vibration were produced, arranged and for some Celtic flavour, and seems fasci- Harvey’s home country was the muse for written by Watson. The tunes are a wonder- nated with weaving new elements into her her eighth studio album, something revealed ful blend of jazz and soul with dashes of modern arrangements of traditional ghaz- in more than just the title. Explaining that she reggae and disco influences. The one song als (Indian musical love poems) and wrote this album as though she were acting with a co-writing credit, “Ready to Be Punjabi folk songs. as an “official song correspondent” from her Loved,” was created with her former hus- This brings us to her latest collaboration. own native lands, Let England Shake is part band and fellow musician Remy Shand. Inspired by the desert blues of the Sahara, conflicted eulogy for bygone Britain (“The Just to make sure her creative vision it was recorded in France and the U.K. The Glorious Land”), part assessment of Eng- doesn’t get compromised, Watson released blend of West African and South Asian land’s place in current global politics the album on a label she co-founded with styles on this album works seamlessly, with (“Written On The Forehead”) and part longing her sister. While singers like Amy Wine- the lead track really showcasing a group for home (“Bitter Branches”). house and Adele are also mining a classic sound as musicians clap, perform some call The title track makes use of an old Four soul sound in their work, Watson’s and response and sing together. “Rabba Lads sample, chanting behind Harvey’s gui- approach is a little softer and sounds more Ru” and “Raqba” also create some wonder- tar-like autoharp strumming, “You can’t go contemporary. ful sonic layering, while the opening guitar back to Constantinople.” On “The Words Tracks like “Under Your Spell,” “Some and horns on “Zindagi” manage to exist That Maketh Murder,” Harvey reflects on Kinda Love,” and “Haunting Me” are high- without getting in the way of the traditional international affairs when she asks, “What lights, but the charming album opener, “Just sounds of the song. if I take my problem to the United Nations?” a Girl,” sets a perfect tone for this record, With her remarkable ability to know what Let England Shake comes with a multi- despite the fact that it’s less than a minute will work as a musical experiment, we’re media bonus: a short film that long. Music fans looking for a new soul lucky Kiran Ahluwalia abandoned her origi- accompanies every track on the record. sound will be very pleased with what Wat- nal plan to work as a bond trader and The shot of a museum skeleton that book- son has come up with. dedicated herself to music full time. ends the video for “The Last Living Rose”

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arts culture MUSIC

is a poignant metaphor for the entire nos- have grown tremendously as songwriters recommend seeing Chic Gamine live. Their talgic album: You can preserve and even and musicians. Their harmonies are as live show will give you goose bumps. celebrate what is gone. beguiling as they ever were, but the themes they tackle are obviously personal THE PACK A.D. PO’ GIRL and a testament to their maturity as WE KILL COMPUTERS FOLLOW YOUR BLISS artists. Loss, love and the importance of Mint Records Independent being true to yourself resonate throughout REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO REVIEW BY CINDY FILIPENKO this CD. The Pack A.D.’s third album, We Kill Com- The enduring West Coast roots outfit Po’ puters, is a departure from their previous Girl has finally hit its stride. Following the CHIC GAMINE CDs, the blues-infused Funeral Mixtape and band’s fourth release, the 2009 CD Deer in CITY CITY Tintype. We Kill Computers has a punkier, the Night, the band has really gelled with Independent garage band sound that really showcases Follow Your Bliss. REVIEW BY ANNA LAZOWSKI Becky Black’s evolving guitar licks. From the opening strains of “Kathy,” Alli- With a Juno award for their self-titled debut But fans of their earlier work need not son Russell’s ode to her music-playing under their belt, Chic Gamine is back with a despair. Black’s distinctive, bluesy growl mother who put down her French horn to brand new album called City City. The Win- still carries the bulk of the weight on these raise her family, to the closing banjo notes nipeg and Montreal-based vocal quintet 13 tracks. It’s a forceful and compelling of “Benediction,” Follow Your Bliss is a fully features singers Ariane Jean, Andrina voice that demands you listen to it. But it’s realized cycle of original, traditional roots Turenne, Alexa Dirks and Annick Bremault when Black holds back a little that The songs. Follow Your Bliss is also a deeply and a lone male member, drummer and per- Pack A.D.’s insightful lyrics shine, as with spiritual and literary work borrowing its title cussionist Alexandre Sacha Daoud. A few the more restrained, “Everyone Looks Like from the work of American anthropologist/ other instrumentalists and guest players Everyone”: “Everyone looks like everyone/ philosopher Joseph Campbell. appear on the album, but it’s really the com- Just like snowflakes, we’re already myth/ Po’ Girl’s musical dexterity verges on the bination of vocal talents that sets Chic just too busy to accept it.” precious—together they have proficiency Gamine apart. City City kicks off with a pow- But then, The Pack A.D. is more about with 22 instruments, exclusive of percussion erhouse track called “Closer,” which sets raw power than cozy melodies. Their driving and vocals, but including dobro, Wurlitzer the tone for an album that relies on vocals sound is most evident on the outstanding and glockenspiel. Founding members Alli- to drive the instrumentation. “Cobra Matte,” “K Stomp” and “BC is on son Russell and Anna Teixeira continue to With a blend of influences ranging from Fire.” The last track is perhaps the most share songwriting duties, with each pen- doo-wop to soul, the album also brings overt nod to their manic 2009 touring sched- ning alternating tracks. This egalitarian some social commentary on “Before It’s Too ule that saw them travelling throughout the approach to the development of the Po’ Girl Late,” several tracks sung in French and a province during an epic forest fire summer. sound appears to have been extended to nice blend of both languages on “Silent Driving into B.C.’s back country confirmed Benny Slidelinger and Mikey “Lightning” War”(guerre froide). City City is the kind of something that both Black and drummer August, the two men who now round out album you’ll have to listen to a few times Maya Miller had long suspected—nature the quartet. Their addition has added a level before your favourite tracks begin to stand trumps technology every time. of energy that was often absent on Po’ Girl’s out, but a few highlights include the raw Authenticity of experience, place and peo- earlier tunes. This richer, fuller sound is energy of “Closer,” the intimate emotion of ple is a theme that runs through We Kill most notably evident on backing vocals and “Say It,” and the lovely lightness of Computers. This commitment to the genuine on the percussion. “Comme un Gateau.” Although this is an extends to the making of the CD itself, which In the decade they have been making easy record to recommend if you’re a fan of was recorded live and direct to analog tape music as Po’ Girl, Russell and Teixeira layered vocal harmonies, it’s even easier to in two weeks. Old school cool at its best.

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emotional burden of the parents’ divorce: “There is silence inside the truck. Andy rubs a hand through his hair. He hasn’t had a cut in months. Soon he’ll be wearing a ponytail. Soon he’ll look like a girl. The feel of the Kahlua and milk he had before he came is wearing off and now he’s just headachy and tired with a sloppy, dirty taste in his mouth. He doesn’t know why he had to drink to pick up his father. It’s just a habit from the past.” The final story, “Henderson Has Scored For Canada,” is a showstopper. This is the pitch-perfect tale of a distressed farm family set in the era of the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series. Berry offers up a searing study of the two essential conflicts of family life: economics and betrayal. FAUNA More tellingly, the range of voices in Because the story unfolds through the ALYSSA YORK Fauna includes those of animals. Such nar- eyes of the young daughter, Maggie, the Random House ratives are usually aimed at children, and tension between her parents takes on an REVIEW BY NIRANJANA IYER for good reason—the anthropomorphiza- innocent, lighter tone. But it’s within the All cities were wilderness once, and tion of animals usually alienates adult cruelty between the children that the loom- ing menace resides: “My daddy says you’re Toronto, younger than many, is still claimed readers already struggling to suspend dis- going under,” the banker’s spoiled daughter by its past. The Don Valley ravine in the belief. But York’s tender yet matter-of-fact writing captures the natural world without Marilee taunts her farm girl foe. heart of the city is home to coyotes, foxes any gimmickry. By placing animals centre Berry’s brand of realism is pungent, and other creatures, while mighty buildings stage in her narrative, by breathing poetry angst-ridden, florid and desperate. In other are but parvenu growths on a migratory into the brutish facts of their existence (a words, it’s wretchedly perfect. path for birds. Run-ins between the local bat’s mad-angled hunt for a “moondust deli- fauna and human activity mostly inconven- cacy” of silvery moth was one of a hundred MY OTHER WOMEN ience people, and grievously harm animals. lines that utterly thrilled me), York reminds PAULINE CAREY Fauna opens with federal wildlife officer us that we humans aren’t as alone—or as The Porcupine’s Quill Edal spying a girl picking up a stunned bird special—as we believe. REVIEW BY KRIS ROTHSTEIN near the Canada Trust Tower in downtown Andrea moves to Toronto in the 1960s to Toronto. Edal follows the girl to an auto I STILL DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU become an actress. She is a product of the wrecker’s yard, which turns out to house a MICHELLE BERRY sexual revolution and likes men and sex, but hidden sanctuary for creatures wounded by Turnstone Press she falls in love only with married men— the city. An oddball group of animal lovers REVIEW BY PATRICIA DAWN ROBERTSON three, to be exact. She also finds permanent has coalesced around the yard’s proprietor Michelle Berry’s previous short fiction col- friendships with the men’s wives, who don’t and sanctuary founder Guy Howell, who lections, How to Get There From Here and know about her romantic escapades. offers food and books He reads aloud; it’s Margaret Lives in the Basement, reflect a While there are obvious hints of autobiog- Kipling that day. dirty realist aesthetic. Her stories are like raphy in this account of life and liberation in Each member of the group seeks healing, tragicomic classified ads ripped from a free the theatre, My Other Women is both con- and nature and nature-themed literature indie weekly: “Be my girlfriend and live vincing and literary. What is the meaning of offer comfort when the city fails its inhabi- rent-free.” being unmarried, unattached, childless? tants. Edal, who’s suffered an emotional Among the down but not out in I Still Don’t These are the questions that begin to obsess breakdown, finds herself drawn to the little Even Know You are Cheever-esque, tipsy sin- Andrea and become the impetus behind the community, even as she hides her profes- gle mothers, unhappy newlyweds, distracted life-changing show she writes and produces. sion from them. writers, hoodie-clad lurkers, A&P cashiers, The Spinster Show is a one-woman play Most of our contact with animals is depressed farmers and preteen shoplifters. in which Andrea blends history and fiction through companionship, consumption, exter- In “Just Like Rain,” a tiny, fractured fam- with family stories in order to question mination and observation from a distance. ily reunites briefly for a midnight visit. whether a woman needs to live with a man. Most of us wouldn’t dream of interchanging Regret, guilt and sorrow close in on an That such a play would be considered revo- the nature of these interactions, even if blind absent father as his inebriated son, Andy, lutionary seems comical now, but it is a tests were to prove that kittens taste better greets him at the local bus depot before fer- reminder of topics that weren’t considered than cows. York delights in blurring these rying him to the hospital ward to say his important enough for artistic attention just a boundaries; animal companions turn preda- goodbyes to his dying ex-wife. few decades ago. Concern about these tor, vermin are befriended, while wild The cautious space between the charac- aspects of women’s lives is somewhat passé animals are cast by some as vermin. ters is a grim reminder of the protracted in fiction—and it does make the novel seem

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like it comes from another era—yet it is still iour on the TV show are fascinating and ily, was a real program developed in a fun, smart and appealing read. heart-wrenching. Gruen has certainly done Alberta in 1997 and now operates federally As Andrea grows comfortably into her- her homework here and crafts the bonobos as the Confidential Service for Victims of self, the story peters out just a little. Some and their touching use of language, with the Abuse. What Boll misses in her writing sections of the book suffer from an over- vivid precision of a documentary filmmaker. chops, she makes up for in real-life knowl- abundance of relentless narration. Reading The story might be overwrought, the edge and an ability to accurately portray about Andrea’s steady succession of characters may be under-developed, but the struggles of kids like Danny and the lovers and jobs gets exhausting after a the novel is a page-turner, combining all the horrors of domestic violence. while; some changes of pace, and perhaps elements of a thriller with the seedy, a peek into Andrea’s downtime might have enthralling underworld of celebrity, smut THINANDBEAUTIFUL.COM broken this up. and tabloid paparazzi. LIANE SHAW While Andrea’s affairs are brought to life In Ape House, Gruen juggles a sprawl- Second Story Press vividly, her relationships with her lovers’ ing plot, clowns around with some REVIEW BY KRISTA SCOTT-DIXON wives are not quite as compelling. If this laughable side characters (a dog named While approximately one percent of Cana- aspect of the story had been deeper, the Booger, for one) and magically makes dian women have clinically recognized eating book would have been more meaningful everything work out in the end, adding cir- disorders, research suggests the majority of and satisfying. cus to the list of things that unite her two women and girls struggle with social ideals most recent novels. of thinness and some form of disordered eat- APE HOUSE ing, such as chronic dieting or periodic food SARA GRUEN THE SECOND TRIAL restriction. Though disordered eating can Spiegel & Grau ROSEMARIE BOLL persist throughout life, it is most acute at REVIEW BY KERRY RYAN Second Story Press times of transition, including adolescence. It’s impossible not to compare Sara Gruen’s REVIEW BY HILARY BARLOW Seventeen-year-old Maddie is grappling most recent novel, Ape House, with her Danny McMillan doesn’t know who to trust. with the usual high school problems: cute spectacular Water for Elephants, released His father has been convicted of assaulting boys, popular mean girls, parents who in 2006. Both books focus on communica- his mother and sister, but he’s not ready to seemingly don’t understand and feelings tion with animals, weave in a tangential move away and never see him again. Fearing that she is fat. Gradually, Maddie begins to theme of human romantic relationships and violent reprisal, authorities have put Danny, explore how being thin and restricting food are highly evocative of time and place. But his mother and his sister in a witness protec- creates social rewards. The less she eats, the strongest link is Gruen’s use of melo- tion program, moved them out of the province the more people seem to like her … until drama—though her Snidely Whiplash-type and given the family members new identities. her preoccupation with food and weight characters—seemed much more at home Torn from his old life, his school and even start to cut her off from family and friends, in Water’s 1930s travelling circus than in a his name, Danny is adrift and emotionally and her starved body provokes revulsion modern-day language research lab. scarred. His father was always good to him, rather than acceptance among her peers. Ape House is the story of Isabel Duncan, and Danny didn’t witness the vast majority of Luckily, there’s support. Maddie discov- an earnest, conscientious scientist devoted the abuse his mother and sister suffered. ers a pro-ana (anorexia) website: to the six bonobo apes she studies. They Shielded by favouritism, the whole situation ThinAndBeautiful.com. There, the Girls communicate with one another through a seems like a cruel joke to Danny, who begins Without Shadows swap tips on throwing up, combination of sign language and computer shoplifting and lashing out at his family. pretending to eat while discarding food and technology, a process that proves the bono- The Second Trial is the first novel by losing menstrual cycles. When she’s forced bos are intelligent, insightful and family lawyer Rosemarie Bol. Though her into rehab, Maddie longs for this online compassionate. When the lab is bombed lack of writing experience shows through community—the only group of people who, and the bonobos stolen, Isabel is physically occasionally in wooden dialogue and ham- it seems, understand her. and emotionally shattered, but determined fisted metaphors, Boll’s strong characters Author Liane Shaw’s own battle with to be reunited with her simian family. and good pacing carry the story. The ten- disordered eating inspired this young adult Like Water for Elephants, Ape House is sion and grief are palpable, for example novel, which is told in autobiographical inhabited by good guys and villains. Fighting when Danny has to say goodbye to his diaries, flashbacks and chat transcripts. At for truth and justice are: the scientist Isabel; grandparents. times, the dialogue wavers, feeling more the altruistic but undervalued journalist Boll deftly portrays how Danny has begun like a grownup version of teenspeak. How- John Thigpen; the tattooed, militant lab to internalize his father’s misogyny and ever, Shaw’s experience shines through to assistant Celia, and a lovable Russian aggression toward the female members of deftly capture the less well-known ele- hooker named Ivanka. On the side of evil his family. The question of whether Danny ments of disordered eating: self-imposed are Isabel’s one-time fiancé, Peter, John’s will adjust to his new surroundings or inad- social isolation, the physical sensations of conniving former colleague and the porn vertently betray his mother and sister by a shrinking and starving body and, above mogul who buys the bonobos to create a contacting his father keep the pages turning. all, the insistence that the anorexia suf- raunchy reality-TV show. The ultimate redeeming quality of The ferer is normal—everyone else is crazy. It’s a shame that the bonobos are lost in Second Trial is its gut-wrenching realism. ThinAndBeautiful.com is a troubling yet the shuffle of the intense, heavily peopled New Identities for Victims of Abuse, the instructive read. Shaw’s character Maddie plot. The sections describing their behav- program that relocates Danny and his fam- suggests that in the face of abundant pres-

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sure on adolescent girls, disordered eating finds no easy resolution.

FARMER JANE: WOMEN CHANGING THE WAY WE EAT TEMRA COSTA Gibbs Smith REVIEW BY BRITTANY SHOOT Male food studies writers like Michael Pollan and Raj Patel have garnered notable press in recent years, while their female contemporaries—slow food pioneer Alice Waters and eco-feminist activist Vandana Shiva, among them— have been engaged in equally vital food justice advocacy for decades. Following in their footsteps, Temra Costa’s first book mainstream. Farmer Jane is impressive in The one quibble I have is that it feels like examines the critical links between obe- its scope and a fine addition to any eco- some of the sources might have been missed sity, diabetes and the accessibility of feminist bookshelf. during revision; in one example, I feel like nutritious food. A writer long active in the there must be a more recent membership sustainable, local food and family farm WOMEN’S SPIRITUALITY: number for the Eastern Orthodox Church than movement in San Francisco’s East Bay, CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST one from 1987. This quibble, however, doesn’t Costa presents a collection of in-depth APPROACHES TO JUDAISM, change the general usefulness of the work. interviews with bureaucrats and grass- CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM AND Women’s Spirituality would be an excel- roots activists that highlights women’s GODDESS WORSHIP lent text for an introductory course in, well, leadership in what Waters once called “a JOHANNA H. STUCKEY just that. The bibliography alone represents delicious revolution.” Inanna Press weeks of work and is well worth the cover Farmer Jane is comprised of inspiring REVIEW BY MEAGAN BUTCHER price. Whether you’re teaching a course on profiles of 30 North American farmers, When Women’s Spirituality: Contemporary the subject or have a general interest in chefs and community organizers who are Feminist Approaches to Judaism, Christian- spirituality, this book with provide you with changing ideas about food distribution and ity, Islam and Goddess Worship arrived, I a well-written, smart, accessible entry to influencing consumption practices. Inter- was worried that it wouldn’t live up to my the field. viewing well-known writers and chefs high expectations. In the mid-’90s, I took including Anna Lappé and Deborah Madi- three courses taught by Johanna H. PINK NOISES: son, urban farmers Novella Carpenter in Stuckey and they were some of my most WOMEN ON ELECTRONIC California and Erika Allen in Chicago, Costa memorable—for their content, yes, but also MUSIC AND SOUND explores the complexity of sustainable for Stuckey’s knowledge, insight and skill TARA RODGERS food agendas, while providing space for with a comma. I needn’t have worried. Duke University Press these activists to speak for themselves. Women’s Spirituality is comprised of six REVIEW BY DEANNA RADFORD Documentary filmmaker Deborah Koons chapters, plus a glossary and an extensive Pink Noises began in 2000 as an online Garcia, director of The Future of Food, bibliography. The first two chapters resource to mark the contributions of speaks about her time touring with her late (“Women’s Spirituality” and “Feminist Theol- women in electronic music. It was founded husband Jerry Garcia and his former band ogy”) provide a conceptual framework for by U.S. musician, composer and feminist The Grateful Dead, watching media inspire the next four chapters dealing respectively technology scholar Tara Rodgers at a time people in the most fundamental ways. with Judaism, Christianity, Islam and god- when there were few resources for women Claire Hope Cummings, a lawyer and dess worship. In each chapter, Stuckey who wanted to discuss electronic music, indigenous land rights activist, talks about provides a brief history of the religion, its and those in existence were often unhelpful being inspired by seed savers and medici- texts and their various interpretations. She to newcomers and discouraging to women. nal plant healers to continue a proud then explores the role of women within each As a result, Rodgers developed Pink tradition of sustainable environmentalism. religion, both historically and currently. Noises the book as part of her Ph.D. work Costa’s wide-ranging interviews highlight The prose is vivid and personable. The at McGill University. This collection of the diversity of women’s work in sustain- facts are laid out plainly, but Stuckey is also interviews features women from around able agriculture and demonstrate her able to insert herself with ease into the text. the world who create electronic music insider understanding of the food justice In the introduction to the chapter six, for from various genres like dance, ambient, movement. Yet her writing is accessible at example, she draws on her experience with sound sculpture and improvisation. The the most basic entry points. It’s all too rare students to make a tight case for moving interviewees, some of whom identify as that people so deeply entwined in a move- from the term “feminist spirituality” to “fem- lesbian, queer or bisexual, include Le ment bring those experiences to the inist goddess worship.” Tigre, Neotropic, DJ Rekha, Pauline Oliv-

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eros, Pamela Z, Annea Lockwood and women may comprise only one in ten DJs or school, as she might do today, she’s sent to Keiko Uenishi. composers, we can reframe the perspective an American psychiatric hospital. The introductory essay is smart, political, by cueing Autumn Stanley’s revised history of What follows is the tale of how an intelli- thorough, thoughtful and filled with interest- technology: with their myriad technological gent and capable, if unconventional and ing references. It is shaped partly by texts innovations as well as sounding practices, rebellious, young woman finds her way out and conversations with women from Canada women hold up two-thirds of the sky.” of an oppressive psych ward—seizures, who curate, write about and produce elec- Giving advice to female producers of escape attempts and sexual escapades tronic music and sound art, including Anna electronic music, Pauline Oliveros says, included. In addition to all of that, Simkin Friz, Andra McCartney, Kim Sawchuk, Ellen “...you’ve got to just keep on keepin’ on. Be comes to terms with her attraction to women Waterman and Hildegard Westerkamp. The subversive. Be very subversive.” at a time when homosexuality was seen as inspiration for Pink Noises is, in part, rooted yet another symptom of a diseased mind. in riot grrrl, women’s music and other libera- THE JAGGED YEARS OF RUTHIE J. In this memoir, Simkin’s first book, the tion music. Acknowledging labourers, BY RUTH SIMKIN prose isn’t always smooth. In fact, sometimes manufacturers, producers, musicians, com- Ekstasis Editions it’s downright clunky. Nonetheless, she’s able posers, listeners, consumers and attendees REVIEW BY HILARY BARLOW to bring to life the colourful characters of as contributors to electronic music, Rodgers In the 1960s, epilepsy was not considered a Chestnut Lodge mental hospital—from the cracks open a narrow divide of written his- physiological condition. It was a heavily girl who crochets life-sized human genitalia tory and offers an inspiring read and stigmatized psychological disorder. So to the unsympathetic, cruel doctors who dialogue for readers to engage in. when straight-A Winnipeg undergrad Ruth seem crazier than their patients. Framing her case positively, she says: Simkin is diagnosed with epilepsy, instead Though it may be tempting to ask what “Rather than linger on observations that of going on medication and returning to more can be said in the sub-genre of for-

author profile GOLD MEDAL DIARY The diary chronicles the hard work, the HAYLEY WICKENHEISER fun-filled moments and the sad ones— Douglas & McIntyre such as the tragedy of the Georgian luger’s death, and later the sudden pass- INTERVIEW BY LYN COCKBURN ing of Joannie Rochette’s mother. It’s Gold. It’s beautiful, it’s rare, it’s valuable detailed, it’s anecdotal, it’s dramatic—it is and everybody wants it. But it is something everything a devout follower of Canadian that only the few get to touch, and fewer women’s hockey needs to get a taste of yet get to keep. Hayley Wickenheiser is Olympic fever. one of the few who has discovered Wickenheiser, arguably the world’s fore- Olympic gold in three different countries. most female hockey player, has enough In 2002, she found it in Salt Lake City and in medals, honours and accolades to fill sev- 2006, she found it in Torino, Italy. Best of eral suitcases, but there’s nothing “been all, in February 2010, she struck gold in there, done that” about this diary. Wicken- Canada after captaining her team to a 2-0 heiser’s enthusiasm and commitment come win over the Americans. through on every page. Fans had already seen Wickenheiser Starting with the first pre-Olympics and her teammates three times on the win- practice on August 9, 2009 six months ners’ podium (twice for gold and once for a before the February 2010 Olympic Games silver in 1998 in Nagano), but it was this and ending with an entry on March 19 that fourth time in Vancouver that was so spe- reflects on the golden win, Wickenheiser cial, so outstanding, so emotional. Hayley Wickenheiser detailed her experiences leading never loses the sense of purpose and Commentators had long since run out of up to and at the Winter Olympics in 2010 in Gold Metal excitement that kept her and her team- adjectives to describe how it felt to watch Diary. (Photo: Jeff Nash) mates focused. the women’s hockey team stand on the Sure, in between those two dates she is podium to receive their gold medals while become a book titled Gold Medal Diary. sometimes tired, even under the weather, the national anthem played. It was the first On the phone from Calgary, the woman even a little unsure. But she is never unde- time the Canadian women’s team had won sometimes referred to as Captain Canada terred—a fact, an atmosphere, an attitude gold at home. sums up the feeling she experienced in that comes across on every page. For To let us in on the excitement of the Van- finding gold on Canadian ice. “It was differ- example, in an October 2009 entry, she couver gold rush and the events that led up ent,” she says. “There were waves of writes about the 3-1 win over the Ameri- to it, Wickenheiser kept a diary that has now positive emotion. It was my best Olympics.” cans in Victoria during the team’s 31-game

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merly privileged white girl endures unen- Canadian Jewish community in the 1960s, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to lightened mental hospital after Girl, which play a role in her anger and rebellion. name a few. Interrupted (Simkin stayed in the same By the end, readers won’t soon forget The common thread running through all institution as Joanne Greenberg of I Never Ruthie’s journey. the essays is the relationship of women to Promised You a Rose Garden fame), their Islamic faith, and their attempts to The Jagged Years of Ruthie J. has plenty MUSLIM WOMEN REFORMERS: reinterpret it, reform it, denounce it, abjure to offer. INSPIRING VOICES it or simply to protect themselves from its Simkin astutely observes the class struc- AGAINST OPPRESSION deleterious effects. Whether these women tures of expensive mental hospitals, where IDA LICHTER are reformers from within, or activists living most of the staff couldn’t afford the type of Prometheus Books in non-Islamic countries, they strongly feel therapy those in their care receive. The REVIEW BY MAYA KHANKHOJE there should be a separation between book also illustrates the persistent stigma of This compendium of struggles, testimonials mosque and state. mental illness. In one poignant scene, and biographies put together by Sydney- Many of the women profiled in this hefty Simkin’s friend won’t allow her to look after based psychiatrist Ida Lichter is essential book are highly qualified university gradu- her young daughter, even for a few minutes, reading for anyone interested in the rise of ates, although some of them started out as because Simkin was once institutionalized. political Islam and its effects on human illiterate adults who acquired an education After leaving Chestnut Lodge, Simkin has rights—especially those of women. It is later in life. Most of them have been perse- an uphill battle trying to find a medical based on solid research and a thoughtful cuted and threatened for their beliefs and school that will accept her, despite her analysis of what Islam means in countries actions, and some have been forced to flee excellent grades. Simkin also provides a cri- as geographically and historically diverse their countries, sometimes leaving their tique of the social and gender norms of the as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, families behind. They have all been tor-

exhibition schedule. Wickenheiser terms it Canadian women grinning and pointing at president Jacques Rogge’s controversial the “TSN Turning Point” and says it him. “He gave us the finger,” she recalls. comments, in which he warned women’s resulted in a different and more positive All was forgotten, however and she and ice hockey officials to improve the parity in attitude in the dressing room. Ovie later shared a laugh. “He doesn’t take competition or risk having the sport But she pulls no punches in describing himself too seriously.” dropped from the Games. He stated that some of the negative occurrences. On There is sadness too, including the the Olympics can bear the lopsidedness (of November 21, she commented on a game tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the skill levels on various teams) for only so in Edmonton with the South Side Athletic Georgian luger. The event was shown on long. “We cannot continue without Club boys Midget AAA team, during which, the big screen in the arena during prac- improvement,” he said. probably because there was no hitting tice. “Some of the girls happened to look Wickenheiser lets on that she thought allowed, these 15- and 16-year-old boys up at that moment and we saw him die … the remarks were annoying, but says, “I were turned off and evidently spent the his lifeless body just lay there,” she can almost thank him because he forced entire game “yap, yap, yapping,” espe- writes simply. Canada to think about the issue.” cially at Wickenheiser, verbally assaulting Wickenheiser describes the gold And she hopes that the fact that the 2014 her while indulging in cheap head shots. In medal game in some detail, starting with Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia, will the last minute of the game, Dane Phaneuf, a wonderful tidbit about a tension-releas- force Russia to invest more in women’s the younger brother of Dion Phaneuf, who ing moment when she had to get away hockey. Wickenheiser’s enthusiasm for all plays for the Calgary Flames, banged into from the crowd before the game. She things hockey is a palpable thing that Wickenheiser behind the net, and she escaped into Sidney Crosby’s stall, saw shows in everything she does, on and off finally lost it. his stick, compared it with hers, discov- the ice—whether she’s in the Olympics “By that point I had had enough,” she ered the two had much the same curve (she says she’ll be there in 2014), writing a writes dryly. “I skated over to him and put and felt calm again. book or attending university (she is con- him in a headlock.” Describing the emotions surrounding templating medical school). The women won 6-1, (“We kicked butt,” the gold medal game, Wickenheiser Right now, she’s enjoying playing on the says Wickeheiser) but TSN concentrated explains that the team got to the point University of Calgary Dinos women’s hockey on Wickenheiser’s fight. where players were not afraid of making team—as a rookie at age 32. In Vancouver There’s humour here, too, as this time mistakes, where they realized that “safe is recently where she played against the UBC around Alexander Ovechkin, the Washing- death,” as Wickenheiser says and mental Thunderbirds, she pronounced her rookie ton Capitals phenom, gives her a big grin toughness takes over. year “the most fun I’ve had in a while.” And and a wave, unlike his reaction in Torino. “It’s 90 percent mental.” no wonder—it seems that establishing rap- “He took a dumb penalty,” Wickenheiser In the book, Wickenheiser says little port with her new team has included taking explains, and evidently caught some of the about International Olympics Committee in a Justin Bieber concert.

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I FEEL GREAT ABOUT MY HANDS EDITED BY SHARI GRAYDON Douglas & McIntyre REVIEW BY PENNI MITCHELL Confession: I didn’t want to read Shari Graydon’s book. I’m 51 and, well, I’m not totally okay with the getting older thing. I’m not alone, it turns out. It also hit some of the contributors to this book hard—blindsiding them, liberating them, humbling them and in some cases nearly breaking them—but in the end, they are all stronger. I couldn’t stop reading. Graydon put together remarkable, inspiring stories that are so honest that you can’t help but want to be as smart as these women. Or maybe it was just me. But after reading these coura- tured, either physically or psychologically. book is a cautionary tale. While the pill’s geous stories of women who are for the But none of them considers herself a vic- legacy was to liberate women, to offer most part about a decade or so ahead of me, tim of circumstances; rather, each sees relief from constant worry about preg- I felt less fearful than I was on page one. herself as an agent of change. Several are nancy and to start the sexual revolution, There is Senator Sharon Carstairs talk- well known and others were hitherto pharma today seems instead to want to ing about how, after being sexually abused anonymous. Not anymore. constrain women, suggesting that most as a child, she found her voice as a politi- Shirin Ebadi (of Iran, a Nobel Prize recipi- women are—or should be—constantly cian. And Mary Walsh—Princess Warrior, ent), Nawal El-Saadawi (of Egypt, a worried about getting pleasure from (het- no less—shares her existential angst. psychiatrist and author), Taslima Nasreen ero)sexual activities because of hormonal, Damn, she is funny and too wise for a 55- (of Bangladesh, a doctor and writer), Asma neurochemical or other biologic insuffi- year-old: “They’re into death. God, I love Jahangir (of Pakistan, a lawyer and activist) ciencies that need drug treatment. the young. They’re so cute. They think you and Ayaan Hirsi (from Somalia, a former Much has been written lately about the can be into death as if it were a Hula Hoop member of the Dutch Parliament and a pharmaceuticalization of life, in particular writer) are some of the high-profile women about how drug companies, no longer or something.” in this volume. The book discusses the content simply to market drugs for well- Constance Backhouse, goddess of femi- activities of several male Muslim reformers established diseases, now seek to create nist history, recalls being shocked and and of transnational organizations protect- conditions allegedly needing treatment. radicalized to learn that Henrietta Muir ing the rights of Muslim women. The reasoning for this shift is obvious— Edwards, one of the women involved in the Muslim Women Reformers is highly rec- and financial. If we can be made to think Persons’ Case, was pushing 80 by the time ommended. It is a difficult read, but no more we have a problem, millions of mouths into the case was won. Lesson learned: There is difficult than the harrowing lives of women which pills can be popped are opened. no retirement from the revolution. living under Islamic fundamentalism. The territory covered by this book has What is it like to have your spouse die been explored by other social and political after 40 years together? I don’t know. But SEX, LIES AND PHARMACEUTICALS: critics, but by focusing on just one manufac- these women will tell you that life gets HOW DRUG COMPANIES PLAN tured condition and all who collaborated in richer, and that it is sometimes harder, but TO PROFIT FROM FEMALE its creation and potential treatment (research that it is no less a life than it was before. SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION scientists, physicians, media, drug compa- Imagine that, mid-life, you and your spouse RAY MOYNIHAN AND BARBARA MINTZES nies, patient groups, drug regulators) the decide to become a truck-driving team. Douglas & McIntyre authors provide important details that con- Imagine you have a stroke at 46. Imagine REVIEW BY ABBY LIPPMAN nect the players. They help us understand you’re working in TV news and, during a This book is a case study in how women’s why sexual medicine is a co-optable area news clip showing people being blown up, sexual dissatisfaction was developed into a that too easily converts women’s legitimate the public calls in to tell you: “Barbara disease by pharmaceutical companies complaints about unsatisfactory relationships [Frum]’s shoulder pads are lopsided … that seeking to create a profit-making block- into the need for drug treatment. bow at her throat makes her look choked.” buster drug. Ray Moynihan and co-author Increasingly, it seems, “better than well” I’d like to thank the women in this book Barbara Mintzes flesh out the details of (to borrow the title of a recent book by Carl for helping me stare down my fear and real- how pharma giant Pfizer, seeking to mimic Elliott) is the health goal of many. And ize that aging isn’t what will shorten my life. its hugely profitable experience with Viagra, while better may be what women want Not working hard for what I believe in created and marketed a pink sibling for its from their sex lives, it’s a scary notion might, though; not being willing to take on blue bonanza. when attached to pharmaceutical products risks and try new things absolutely will; not Coming out in 2010, the year that cele- that come with potentially serious risks living well or loving well are guaranteed brated the 50th anniversary of the pill, this and side effects. life-shorteners. But aging? Not so much.

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arts culture One Women’s

BY DEBORAH OSTROVSKY DIFFERENCE out controversy. Wilson acknowledged that the law develops “slowly and incrementally.” She often eschewed the feminist label. Yet, despite a belief in incrementalism, she was out- raged by the discrimination faced by women of colour and Aboriginal, lesbian and disabled women. As chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s 1993 gender equality study, Touchstones for Change: Equality, Diversity and Accountability, Wilson wanted to put an abrupt end to old ways of thinking. “We must discard the white, male, heterosexual image of the lawyer and welcome ‘the other’ to our profession,” the path- breaking study proclaimed. But who was Bertha Wilson? Was she a feminist judge, despite herself? Why did Wilson deny the feminist label while taking up the cause at many points in her career? Since her death in 2007, legal experts from across Canada have started to re-examine these questions. Now, the fruits of this inquiry can be found in Bertha Wilson: One Woman’s Differ- ence, published by UBC Press. It is apt that a book about Wilson’s legacy is edited by Kim Brooks, dean of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, where Wilson graduated in 1957. Kim Brooks, dean of Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, edited Justice Bertha Wilson One Woman’s Difference. (Photo: Nick Pearce) Herizons spoke with Kim Brooks about the collection, a rich, complex portrait of Wilson’s legal thinking. ertha Wilson had a life of many firsts. She was the first female partner to be hired by a major Cana- HERIZONS: In 1954, when 31-year-old Bertha Wilson dian law firm. She was the first woman to serve on applied to Dalhousie law school (now Schulich School of Law), the B dean suggested that she “go home and take up crocheting.” Times the Ontario Court of Appeal. And in 1982 she became the first female judge on the Supreme Court of Canada. Born have certainly changed. Still, what are some of the remaining in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1923, Wilson, who married a gender barriers in the legal profession? Presbyterian minister, possessed a trademark Scottish KIM BROOKS: There are still a surprising number of bar- asperity, mixed with the intellectual appetite of an Enlight- riers for women in the legal profession. First, women enment philosopher. continue to leave the private practice of law in large numbers “Make yourself indispensable,” she once pragmatically when they have families. We still live in a world where advised women graduates during a Mount Saint Vincent Uni- women carry the predominant weight of unpaid work in the versity convocation address. She became an indispensable home. Balancing those unpaid commitments with paid ones juridical pioneer in the early days of the Charter of Rights and is a continued struggle. Second, and more fundamentally Freedoms. We have Wilson to thank for landmark legal deci- perhaps, we continue to have a sense that there are high- sions in many areas, including reproductive rights, refugee prestige or “real” law careers (namely, private practice) and status, property rights, family law and violence against women. that they are better than other uses of a law degree—in Practising law in an era when most women employed by everything from government service to journalism. Many firms answered phones and served coffee, she was not with- women with law degrees use them in powerful ways in pur-

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arts culture

suit of the public interest outside of private practice, and yet both of those legal questions and the articulation of the rel- we lose sight of those contributions. evant facts into a broader frame.

Speaking of contributions, did Wilson believe that women judges, So how did this help Canadian women? and a female perspective, had the potential to make a difference to KIM BROOKS: Take the 1990 Lavallee decision [in which the Canadian legal system? the Supreme Court recognized battered-wife syndrome as KIM BROOKS: Bertha Wilson gave a talk at Osgoode Hall a defence]. The court could have looked only at the narrow titled “Will Women Judges Really Make a Difference?” The facts: a woman [Angelique Lavallee] shot her partner, but talk was focused on the importance of women judges. It was a not in the heat of a moment of a dispute where her life was lightning rod for criticism that she was feminist. Yet, her talk is imminently threatened. The court could have decided that actually quite tempered. For example, she claimed that “Per- the defence of self-defence did not apply. Instead, it looked haps they [women judges] will succeed in infusing the law with at the broader context faced by women in violent relation- an understanding of what it means to be fully human.”* ships. That broader factual context, informed by the structures and implications of patriarchy and male The authors describe Wilson as a trailblazer violence, changed the way that the who condemned women’s inequality. But court understood the appropriate legal some ask whether she was feminist enough, test [for women who were victims of or feminist at all. Wilson once said that she domestic violence]. considered herself “a moderate feminist.” Later, her biographer Ellen Anderson Justice Wilson was part of the landmark wrote of Wilson denying she was a femi- decision in the 1988 Morgentaler case that nist. This seems like a contradiction. decriminalized abortion in Canada. Wilson KIM BROOKS: I think of this less as invoked Section 7 of the Charter of Rights a contradiction than as differences in and Freedoms (liberty and security of the interpretation or differences in person) and not Section 15 (sex equality). moment. If you take a snapshot— Some feminists criticized Wilson for not think of Margaret Lawrence’s idea of invoking the right to sex equality but the the snapshot from her novel, The book discusses how Wilson’s interpretation of Diviners. You can catch someone in a Section 7 of the Charter was innovative. moment that accords more or less with How so? an idea of what a feminist is, does, or KIM BROOKS: Beverley Baines’ chap- ought to be. All we can really do when ter delves into this question directly. looking in hindsight at a person is to Baines argues, drawing on work done by consider their life in a series of snapshots. Some things are Diana Majury, that Justice Wilson contextualized reproduction obscured. Other things are fully revealed—perhaps as an issue uniquely important to women’s sense of dignity and revealed even more fully than they were for those who lived worth. I guess, in my own view, the issue is perhaps less about in that particular moment. the head under which the argument is made [whether Section Sometimes, Wilson acted boldly in the service of women’s 7, security of the person or Section 15, equality rights] and equality. Think of her contributions, for example, to the Cana- more about whether the judgment as a whole seeks to validate dian Bar Association’s Touchstones for Change project. At women’s unique experiences, which Justice Wilson’s judgment other moments, perhaps, we would hope that Wilson might in this case ably does. have been clearer, or said more, or done something different. I see that royalties from this book will go to the Justice Bertha Yet there’s no doubt that Wilson was also ahead of her time in Wilson Fund. What will this fund support? terms of her contextual approach to judging. What is this contex- The fund, established by the Women’s Legal Education and tual approach? Action Fund, will be used to support legal education, KIM BROOKS: A contextual approach requires looking not research on gender issues and interventions in equality rights only at the very narrow legal issue, or the very narrow set of cases. It seemed appropriate to donate any royalties earned facts that might inform a legal decision, but rather to set by the book to the fund.

*You can hear Justice Wilsons speech at http://www.thecourt.ca/2007/05/31/bertha-wilson-“will-women-judges-really-make-a-difference”

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arts culture FILM

Sebastian Silva’s The Maid illustrates beauty through characters that are vulnerable, courageous and true.

THE MAID laically plotted film. The Maid rises organi- ensues one of the most impressive fight Directed by Sebastian Silva cally from the delicate treatment of its scenes in cinematic history—on par with the REVIEW BY MAUREEN MEDVED characters as vulnerable, courageous and infamous naked fight in Eastern Promises. With a face as blunt and hard and unread- true. Throughout, Silva shows a love and Another maid brought in to assist Raquel able as a hatchet, Raquel (Catalina respect for all—even the minor characters, is young and beautiful—reminiscent of Saavedra) has worked as the Valdes fam- whose facets are well-cut and who glint Raquel’s lost youth—but she is intelligent ily’s maid for two decades. At 41, she is with intelligence and a range of emotion. and self-aware enough to walk away from a almost pathologically uncommunicative, Raquel’s situation seems almost beyond loaded and unwinnable conflict. The final removed and protective of her employers. hope. Her future is cemented by the vast maid, Lucy (Mariana Loyola) is neither too With Raquel’s mounting headaches and economic divide. Necessity has forced young nor too old, and, to paraphrase dizzy spells, the mother of the house Raquel into a maid’s uniform for half of her Goldilocks, neither too hot nor too cold. decides to hire another maid to assist life to care for someone else’s kids. Her Yet within this median, amazingly bright Raquel with her duties. This impending future seems immutable. It’s true that the light bursts and floods with love and com- threat to Raquel’s real and imagined control family is kind and loving. They give Raquel a passion and joy. Raquel’s transformation over the household kicks the film into gear. cake and expensive clothes on her birthday. stems from the arrival of Lucy and her pure From the film’s trailer and establishing They vibrate with concern and sensitivity and and sympathetic nature. Through her, scenes, The Maid, directed by Sebastian appreciation; yet, within a few of the charac- Raquel has the power to transform. Raquel Silva and written by Silva with Pedro Peirano, ters, one can detect their worry, anger, and and Lucy’s is one of the most hopeful looks like a dark, stylish thriller or satire even fear for having put their trust and lives female friendships I’ve seen in film, lacking where the maid (a middle-aged woman) as in the hands of the economically enslaved. in easy drama, tragedy and sentimentality. enraged pathological two-dimensional mon- When other maids are brought in to lessen Intelligent and empathetic of design, this is ster (see: Fatal Attraction) traumatizes and her workload (as well as to subvert her domi- a friendship built on humour, joy and honest, destroys a family. The Maid presents that nance and control over the household), motiveless compassion. way at first, but this is s a different film. Like a Raquel, not unlike someone experiencing Many find life’s path narrow and knot- Chilean version of Mike Leigh’s work—films Stockholm Syndrome, identifies too closely ted. Every so often this path will cross a such as the bleak and brilliant Naked with her employers. She offends and protects stem new and green and fragile and puls- aside—The Maid has more in common with when an older maid (Anita Reeves) parts with ing with life. For some this potential is a social and comic realism, such as Leigh’s a piece of wisdom: “Why do you make such catalyst for catastrophe, but for others it’s High Hopes and Happy-Go-Lucky. an effort for these ingrates? Just do your job an opening for joy and hope. In this way, As with many of Leigh’s films, the beauty and you’ll be happier.” Raquel responds by this film offers instruction for a beautiful of The Maid is not an easy, driving, formu- locking the woman out of the villa. Thus life as much as it entertains.

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on the edge BY LYN COCKBURN

BRANDING THE POPE

Dear Ben XVI, Egyptians, communists, liberals, Michelle Obama and Right up front I’ll tell you I’m a Protestant (lapsed— Martians are truly inspiring. Try not to judge him for the although I’m not sure us Prods lapse so much as we loll about fact that he was raised a Catholic but converted to the on Sundays scarfing down croissants and brie, unwilling to get Mormon faith. preached at once again) and a woman. So I understand that So, let’s look at the language of your latest pronouncement. you may be a trifle skeptical about any advice I may give you, You said doctors should “protect women.” Lame, Ben, very you being Pope and all. lame. Where is the punch, where is the fist-in-the-gut rhet- However, I have long been a student of good business oric? You need to thunder—more like this: “Doctors who management skill and style, and I can see that you need help. wish to avoid watching their own flesh burn off their bones Your brand is slipping and so, in the interest of keeping your in the inferno of a fiery hell would do well to protect worth- corporation, the Catholic Church up to date, it behooves you less, wicked, weak women from the sinful, evil, disgusting, to keep reading. horrific, criminal murder of their unborn children.” Let us use your recent speech about abortion as an exam- Then you said “abortion solves nothing” and called on doc- ple. That’s the one you gave on February 26, when you urged tors not to give up their duty to defend the consciences of doctors to protect women from the deceptive thought that an women from such “deception.” abortion might be a solution to social or economic difficulties Ben, Ben, Ben. “Abortion solves nothing”? That’s a phrase or health problems. Shakespeare might describe as empty of sound and fury, but You said “abortion solves nothing” and called on doctors still signifying nothing. Try “Abortion is an abomination, a not to give up their duty to defend the consciences of women boil on the backside of humanity, a plantar’s wart in the foot from such “deception.” of Mary.” Think Beck, Ben. This is your first major pronouncement on abortion in “The conscience of women?” What nonsense is that? “No quite some time. Not good. Let us use Apple’s iPad as an woman who considers abortion has a conscience or a soul” is example. (BTW, were you, like me, momentarily discombob- the way to roll. ulated by the title of this new electronic device? What were And finally, let’s get realistic here. It’s one thing to exhort they thinking, naming a computer after a sanitary napkin? existing doctors (many of whom are godless atheists), liberals Speaking of which, have you read Gloria Steinem’s essay “If and civil liberty nutbars (and some of them are even women) Men Could Menstruate.” Illuminating. Here’s a link: to protect weak-minded females. It’s quite another thing to http://www.mum.org/ifmencou.htm.) promote a revolution in medicine, one that will forever solve My point is that in order to market your brand, you have the problem of abortion. Step up to the plate, Ben. (I suspect to constantly remind the public of its existence. For example, you’re more a fan of soccer than of baseball, but it’s hard to the minute Apple came out with the iPad, it began titillating get a handle on soccer slang. “Step onto the pitch” doesn’t us with rumours of an iPad2 (in stores now, in case you’re have the same ring to it.) interested). You, on the other hand, are letting too much time What you need to do, Ben, is to promote the idea that uni- pass between pronouncements on abortion. versities worldwide should change their admission Next, you need to make the language of your pronounce- requirements so that only right-thinking anti-abortionists, ments snappier, more dynamic—capable of arousing your preferably male, are permitted to enter medical school. That followers at least to indignation and, at best, outrage. You would write finis to the abortion issue. could benefit from watching Glenn Beck on Fox News. I trust that my suggestions will help you better market your Now there’s a man who knows how to market his brand, brand. whip the public into a productive frenzy and promote a healthy diet of fear. His remarks about Muslims (of whom Sincerely, U.S. President Barack Obama is evidently one), Jews, Lyn

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