From Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth
 

Dear All

Two weeks ago I returned from the Matriarchy conference of Torino/Italy, which took place on mid March. It was a very interesting conference and well organized by the young women of the Association Laima and of the Libreria Editrice Psyche of Torino: Morena Luciani, Sarah Perini and Monica Smith, supported by Luciana Percovic from Rome. Several high ranking female political officials from the city Torino and the region of Piedmont acted as Matron Institutions for this conference.

The organizers titled this conference: “Indigenous cultures of Peace. Women and Men beyond Conflict”, to include people who never heard before about matriarchy and also open-minded men.

The organizers were successful with their strategy: More than 200 women and some men from all over Italy participated, and they were enthusiastic about all knowledge on matriarchal societies they could get here. The conference was opened by an excellent film titled “Matri-arché ” about the situation of the world today, and critical ecofeminist and matriarchal voices were heard in the interviews with Vandana Shiva, Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Genevieve Vaughan, Michaela Zucca and others (film from Monica Di Bernardo, Francesca Colombini and Aldo Silvestri).

With respect to the title of the conference, indigenous women gave much celebrated  presentations: Bernedette Muthien and Jean Burgess of the KhoeSan from South Africa, and two women of the Mosuo from Westen China. Francesca Rosati Freeman, who wrote a book about the Mosuo in Italian language, presented and assisted them.

Additionally, we could hear Russel Means of the Lakota speak via skype, he gave a short speech about the importance of women in the Lakota and North American indigenous cultures, and for the world of today.

The basic characteristics of matriarchal societies were presented by Heide Goettner-Abendroth, as well as some basic ideas of matriarchal politics, and her speech was followed by a long discussion. Peggy Reeves Sanday excellently presented the matriarchy of the Minangkabau from her decades-long research in Sumatra. Genevieve Vaughan were with us via skype again, and several Italian speakers introduced their ideas and activities: about the Upcoming Degrowth (Daniela Degan and Alberto Castagnola), about the Discriminating Role of Family Name in the Italian Patrilineal Sytem (Iole Natoli), about a Gylanic Childhood (Mario Bolognese), and more.

The conference was enriched by wonderful Dances and “Incanti”, ancient songs from several continents (Barbara Zanoni), as well as by a theatrical presentation from “Medea” (Christa Wolf) by two actresses. One evening was dedicated to a Women’s Circle and a Men’s Circle which were special spiritual events. The women drummed and danced and got wild, so that the men could hardly finish with their debate in the neighboring room. However they decided to follow the archetype of the “warrior for life” and to become fighters againt violence.

It was a full, rich, wonderful conference, vibrant with noise and life. Hopefully, it will empower and promote the matriarchal movement, which makes an encouraging beginning in Italy. Congratulations to the committed organizers who brought this event on the way!

Heide

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Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth
Weghof 2
D-94577 Winzer
Germany
Phone + Fax: +49-8545-1245
homepages:
www.hagia.de
www.goettner-abendroth.de