Reclaim Sacred Self: Relearn Anatomy and Cycles
Reclaim Sacred Self:
Relearn Anatomy and Cycles
“She planned that it would be hard for men and women, once attached, to separate again. She decided that both men and women should have medicine to attract each other. Then she a penis of turquoise. She rubbed loose cuticle [epidermal substance] from the man’s breast. This she mixed with yucca fruit. She made a clitoris of red shell and put it inside the vagina. She rubbed loose cuticle from a women’s breast and mixed it with yucca fruit. She put that inside the turquoise penis. She combined herbs and waters of various kinds which should be for producing pregnancy. She placed the vagina on the ground and beside it the penis. Then she blew medicine from her mouth on them.”
— Goddard 1933: Molded in the Image of Changing Women by Maureen T. Schwars
My Body, My Territory
Indigenous bodies have been determined and regulated by western education since the colonization of Turtle Island. Our Sacred Anatomy has been influenced by patriarchy and systems of oppression for over 500 years. It is a direct threat to our bodies and the land if we continue to uphold the displacement of our Sacred Self and Cycles.
Colonialism and patriarchy have been able to persuade and dominate how to think about our bodies. We are told what to name our bodies, how our bodies work, and what to do with our bodies. For instance the so-called fallopian tube is named after the 16th century Italian anatomist Gabriele Falloppio. The story is he "discovered" the so-called fallopian tube and named it so because he thought it resembled a tube. Just like Christopher Columbus, Gabriele Falloppio is a participant of justifying a patriarchal legacy of discovery.
We are told that our wombs are sexual objects made for pleasure and to have babies. Our wombs are so much more than that. Our wombs carry the strength and wisdom of our ancestors. Each and everyone us was literally carried in our great, great, great grandmothers womb. We are infused with the knowledge and endurance or our grandmother this is a gift to us, we must protect it.
As Indigenous peoples we have our own ways to identify our bodies.