Herstorical Figures PT1
Celebrating Powerful Seereses, Leaders & Shamaness’s for Women’s History Month
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are celebrating some of the Herstorical Figures who shaped history, but don’t often get mentioned…
In part 1 we meet Evenki shaman Olga who was both chieftain and religious leader of her Siberian village about a century ago, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana spiritual leader and leader of the Shona Revolt in Zimbabwe against the British. María Candelaria in the Maya uprising against the Spanish, and the seeress Veleda who was the guiding force behind the Batavian insurrection of tribal Europeans against Rome.
‘Women have often been relegated to the footnotes of history, and even those are highly selective. As Sandra Cisneros wrote of her search for Latina sheroes, “We are the footnotes of the footnotes.” Yet the heritages of women of color, especially the indigenous cultures, supply the most dramatic examples in recent history of open embrace of female power. But even Europe looks different when we look at the common women and encompass places like Bulgaria, Estonia, Corsica, or Iberian Galicia. Often this female leadership does not rely on institutionalized authority, but on recognized personal power. Female boldness has in many societies been required simply to defend personal liberty and self-determination, carving out space to act in spite of patriarchal constraints, to become what the English called “a woman at her own commandment.” There are many historical accounts of women warriors, and women often fought to defend their homes, their people and their country.’
– Max Dashu