Women Sculpting their Lives (Peru), by Melissa Nigrini
It is a tempestuous afternoon during the rainy season in Peru. Eight women are hunkered down in a circle of tiny chairs, cold, tired and stressed.
They have walked far and worked hard to be here. The focus group is about to begin. Part of an arts-based participatory study that I have developed, it seeks to integrate the perspectives and needs of these women into a development initiative that may affect their lives.
An hour later, the rain continues to pound the roof. The women are now laughing and playing. As they carefully sculpt a replica of their community out of clay, they joke and talk about their daily lives and what it’s like to be a woman. For most of them, it means a lifetime of physical labour and child rearing. The younger ones begin to speak up, asking the older ones for advice. Later, while putting the finishing touches on their work of art, they begin to talk candidly among themselves about social issues that affect their families, like poverty, discrimination and violence.
Once their masterpiece is complete, the work is presented with a vibrant and lucid account of how they chose to represent the context in which they live.
The women are glowing with delight. Perhaps it is because of what they have created, or maybe because this is the first time they have shared their feelings and experiences with other mothers like this. Whatever the reason, they are energized, and with smiles on their faces they ask “what next?”
Read Women Fighting HIV/AIDS (China) by Dolores Ladouceur
Read Women Working Together Towards a Better Future (Cameroon) by Rebecca Boyce
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