Women who worked hard and played hard, running businesses that fed and educated whole communities. Women whose inner lives remain hidden from us. What I do know about the woman in centre stage and some of the friends around her is that they loved to party. They spent money on expensive fabrics and on jewellery.
They were there for each other: at naming ceremonies, funerals, weddings, house warmings. Any opportunity for faaji. Many of these women were dancing well into their 80s. This was a time when everything was known and unknown. Everything was possible. The past was not quite past and the future not quite yet future. When I look at these pictures of my great aunt/mother and her friends, I see total abandonment and joy in the company of women.
Anonymous
