After the successful launch of Unity through beats, Mama Earth has continued to support culture centred projects. This year, MAMA is taking a bold stand. We are embarking on a journey with Right of passage films to tell impactful stories about women and culture.
This journey is about the influence and empowering values of culture and how women in our lives, past and present, uphold aspects of culture from generation to generation.
Why is this important? Think of it as the tragedy of losing an animal to extinction; knowledge and influence dies with the species and in turn a domino effect of loss is felt across the earth’s ecosystem. Generations have gone by without the knowledge of past cultural practices because of their omittance from modern education systems. Having knowledge about our ancient practices could aid us in our present lives when it comes to women’s health and well being. MAMA is taking a stand to raise an awareness about the importance of preserving ties to ancient sciences and cultural practices because learning about our own human history and culture is crucial to the existence of our own species.
Women face menstruation, child birth, menopause, and blood pressure issues that are largely influenced by diet, lifestyle and societal pressures. Today, most women are turning to remedies that have only been developed and tested within the last century. These ‘solutions’ often end with results that are worse than the original diagnosis. Why do women rush for a cure without first understanding the condition completely? There needs to be more allowance for open dialogue around these conditions. For instance, there are taboos around discussing hormonal processes that cause women to assume that it is an illness that they must medicate. Society also shames and adds pressure on women to deal with what they face in silence or to look as though they are immune to the effects of age and maturing bodies.
In non-western cultures, menopause is a time of new respect and freedom for women. In places like, India, Mexico and Japan, reports and studies have shown that the symptoms of menopause are significantly less adverse than in western societies. Practices that date back to ancient times, such as living on plant based diets and no dairy consumption are shown to support women’s maturation process better. Unfortunately, women who have moved to western society or are generations removed from these cultures have lost this knowledge or do not know of its existence.
The symptoms of hormonal changes should not be seen as signs of mental illness or social taboos. Instead, we should look back to our mothers and their mothers, till we can really understand what this time in our lives means. MAMA wants to support the reclamation of mother’s knowledge from generation to generation and reintroduce knowledge of these practices to help women who have lost ties to their roots.
In today’s society, if we had more value for this view then we could help women to find safer journeys through the different stages of their lives and get the true meaning and value from the rest of society.
In a world where women are often placed in roles that don’t value their true power, women start believing that they are burdens as they age.
We believe that women need to take their place as the protagonists in their own stories, become the centre of their own healing and reconnect to the source of who they are and where they come from.
MAMA will be investigating cultural practices from women around the world and what it means for their health and well being. We invite you to become a part of the story by contacting us with your passed down knowledge and cultural practices so we can add them to a virtual ‘Mama’s book of knowledge’.
This year, the first story that we would like to share is based on the impact of a woman’s connection to her grandmother through an ancient practice in her culture that turns into a journey of discovery. Here is a sneak peek….