News from the Field Fall 2003 Battered by incessant wars and rapes since Bronze Age, females are in deep shock and have amnesia regarding female culture and female humanity. Imbedded from thousands of years of genocide practices, fear, generations long, has become this amnesia and female silence. 2003 was a crisscrossing of the globe. In January and February I was in Sri Lanka the exact time a peace treaty was signed declaring an end to 22 years of war. However, I have witnessed as other women have that the war never ends. In June and July, I was in Bombay/Mumbai India and back to Bosnia. In Bosnia, I facilitated the annual “Peaceful Dimensions Against Gender Violence,” conference in Novi Travnik, Bosnia. Again, I witnessed how the war never ends for women despite having multinational troops stationed in Bosnian cities for over 8 years now. Mumbai had female beggars with children so thin that I thought I was looking at sticks. My kolo (Bosnian for circle or to dance) work in these places allows females to remember their wisdom so that they become self-sustainable not only economically but also emotionally. The kolo work ennobles females to deal with their traumas by tapping into our inherent female culture and roots. Battered by incessant wars and rapes since Bronze Age, females are in deep shock and have amnesia regarding female culture and female humanity. Imbedded from thousands of years of genocide practices, fear, generations long, has become this amnesia and female silence. The Bosnian women, called ‘Sumejja Kolo,’ have been in the kolo program since March 1999 and ten of them have become certified kolo advisors. The women become empowered once the amnesia is broken. How? The Sumejja Kolo marched for garbage pickup in their town of Novi Travnik, and facilitated kolo meetings with war crimes survivors in Vittez-Amijca, Jayce, Zenica and Sebrenica. To facilitate a kolo gathering the necessary ingredients of coffee cups, coffee cup readings and other women’s divinatory arts such as the Slavic 41 white beans and first person stories are strongly present. The shock triggers memory when hearing other female’s first person story. More climatic then a massive earthquake, bearing witness to the Bosnians and in Sri Lanka first person stories one becomes conscious at how universal and how webbed we really are to each other. Tamils, Hindus, Singhalese, Bosnian Muslims, all females spoke in exact detail the same war crime the world over. The hatred of anything female is murdered, assaulted, denigrated and made invisible. At one of the kolo meetings in Bosnia, an elder white haired woman with huge reading glasses sucked up her crying to state how she just realized her mother could not show her love as she has done with her children. Wringing her tissue she declared the war never ends. Do females blame the war for not being able to love their children especially their daughters? Often the Bosnian women remark how it was better during the war then now. I always wonder with that remark if that is why we have incessant wars. Countless times, my soul inquires where are the women, the earth wide sisterhood? How is it that we as females are in denial of catastrophic rape statistics, murders and global wars declared not on countries, armies or ruling male governments but on homes (wombs archetypal), families and children? More money was spent in developing a tank that shears homes in half for the Israeli army then for humanitarian aid efforts there. Female culture and Female humanity embraces solidarity usually only in times of war, traumas and crisis. The kolo work allows for solidarity and support to occur in times of need, advocacy and concern for all sisters earth wide. If you are interested in collaborating for solidarity and to break the amnesia -female silence please consider a donation or your services for the kolo work and the nonprofit ‘The Kolo: Women’s Cross Cultural Collaboration.” The annual “Peaceful Dimensions’ Conference,” held annually in Novi Travnik, has international female visitors from other countries bearing witness to Bosnian female’s war and first person stories. Join me for that work/study tour and make a difference in your life and the earth. Become visible. Check the Baba Yaga Section of this website and read first person story accounts of the Sumejja Kolo. Your donation to them will be heartfelt. A fund towards a ‘safe place’ for females in the town of Novi Travnik is one dream. Air miles for the Bosnian certified kolo advisors and for myself to provide more training is very needed. Donations can be tax exempt through the nonprofit The Kolo: Women’s Cross Cultural Collaboration. Even $10 goes such a long way if each of us donated. Women can heal the earth and stop the war that never ends. Feminine Matrix is requesting articles from females who are advocating, bearing witness to the war that never ends. We will publish the article that proclaims and understands the depth of bearing witness, solidarity and support for female culture and female humanity.