This is not a story about a woman who has not been at the coalface of sexual assault, nor is it a story about glorifying the powerful amongst us.
This is a story about truth.
I was born in Scotland in 1967. During that time there was still a strict moral code dictating that unmarried women should give up their children for adoption.
In Australia, all through the 1970s, Aboriginal children were being forcibly removed from their mother’s breasts and assimilated into White families.
Women first got the right to vote in New Zealand in 1893 and finally, 118 years later in Saudi Arabia, the last suffragette went to bed.
Our history is rife with rampant disregard for the feminine principle.
Depending on how conditioned your mother was, you may have been groomed to believe that the only way to gain power in this World was through a man. You don’t need to look very far to see frustrated, clever women being managed by neurotic, weak men.
In many Aboriginal Nations, it was normal for menstruating women to be separated from their communities for the duration of their ‘bleed’. This time away was seen as essential to their wellbeing. Theirs was a culture that revered the power that women had to create life. It was truly egalitarian.
And then in 1770 the Colonised Mind arrived in Australia.
A Colonised Mind works through entitlement and righteousness, fuelling shame, judgement and victimhood. It perpetuated Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, seeing Indigenous people of less value to those with an educated mind. It was and continues to be driven by a mantra of ‘power over’ rather than ‘power with’.
The Colonised Mind created a cycle known as The Karpman Drama triangle. A global stage set for the Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim archetypes to play out on. Harvey and Donald are playing two leading roles worthy of an Oscar. It would take the absolute definition of the Colonised Mind to wake us all up to the corrosive abuse and neglect of our feminine principle.
Yes, we are angry at the years our voices were stifled and our bodies abused by fear they were not good enough. But beyond the anger is the grief of lost years and opportunities for ourselves and the women who walked before us. For the women who had to look after our children while we attempted to break through the glass ceiling. For the women and their children who worked in appalling conditions sewing our clothes because we had to look pretty to win or keep our powerful men. It has been damn hard and in my opinion we all need a good cry. We need to humanise each of our sisters who has tried to find a way to make sense of this despicable mind. We have all done the best we could. Let us lead with love, not blame or shame.
And when we are done weeping, I believe we need to align with this gentle, creative energy. We need to allow it to flow and dissolve all those hard, power hungry, pointy edged spaces in our own minds.
We need to raise our boys to be gentle and kind, to honour their emotions, to cry and create beauty. We need to raise our girls to speak their truth, and believe in their power to change any injustices.
We need to love our men, and encourage them to walk away from jobs that are crushing their souls.
We collectively, as humans need to work hard to create a balanced ‘power with’ World where domination ends and harmony resides.
It is a great time to be alive.