Homebase Magazine Issue #47 Summer, 1997

Table of Contents: Issue #47, Spring, 1997

Editorial

MAW Report

The remaining articles in list form: Herbs 'n Stuff - Fairie Land | Sheila Scotchmer Awards for Humour | Awakenings - Notes on Spiritual Growth and Teaching Children Values | Greenspace - Landscapes | Off the Wall - Wanted: A Feminist Sense of Humour | Healthy Outlook - Why Popeye Should Have Eaten Broccoli | Poem: God is a Woman | Tapestry - Getting Organic in the Garden and at the Table | Notes From A Broad - Finding Our Way to the Sacred Reindeer | Feedback: Returning to the Paid Workforce or What Happens When the Children Get Older | Speech Therapy | Poem: You Are My Sunshine | Politically Speaking - Election Questions | Roundtable Discussion on Infertility

Dear Homebase - an expanded edition of letters from our readers

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Editorial

Happy Spring!

I must begin with congratulations to WebMistress Extraordinaire, Willa Egrmajer, for designing the MAW/Homebase website. It was so much fun to see MAW out there in full view of the world, offering an alternative vision of motherhood and feminism. If you're able, get online and let us know what you think - all suggestions are welcome. In addition, MAW/Homebase now has a central e-mail address. So, instead of trying to reach us individually, messages may now be sent to homebase@mothersarewomen.com. We'll keep you posted on website visitors, questions, views and comments in upcoming issues of Homebase.

To those of you who have wondered why Homebase doesn't always arrive as soon as you wish it would, or discuss those issues most on your mind, I've included, after much reflection, the following thoughts on the matter...

Homebase has a small number of dedicated women who provide the majority of articles and illustrations for each issue. When I attend Steering Committee meetings, the other members know I have a hidden agenda to cajole them into writing a little something for Homebase. Most of them know better than to relate any tales of daily life lest I respond, "You know, that would make a great article for Homebase!" I am often faced head-on with pleas of "Please don't ask us for articles, we're too busy!" and they really are. As with all volunteer organizations, timelines need to be flexible enough to accommodate other responsibilities such as personal lives, bouts of illness, holiday celebrations and, if we're really lucky, sleep. In the end, it is important that you know, that Homebase is totally dependent on readers like you to write and illustrate many of the articles. The bottom line is: if you're not contributing, we're not publishing.

Several of you wrote about Homebase's new subtitle A Forum for Mothers. The reasoning behind this change is that it more accurately reflects the lives of our members. If we are only concerned with mothers at home, what happens if our members return to the paid workforce? Many of MAW's long-time members have returned to the paid workforce full-time, but they still volunteer to do massive amounts of work on behalf of MAW. We believe they should be openly included. They are still very supportive of the value of a mother choosing to stay at home and raise her children. They are just at a different place on the path. MAW is in the process of changing its literature to reflect this need for support from those mothers who are no longer at home but who believe every mother has the right to choose what is best for her.

The Steering Committee needs input about what it is about MAW that keeps you interested and committed as a member. At Homebase, we need to know what topics interest you.

Just to clarify, at Homebase we have a year which begins in the Spring and ends in the Winter. Therefore, Issue 46 was correctly dated as Winter 1996. This hearkens back to a time and place where the cycles of time and life coincided with the seasons. As we, in Canada know all too well, Winter has always started by December 20-21. Now all we need is to get the warm seasons to start on time.

If you have an idea for Homebase, take the time to put it on paper. We were all a little hesitant with our first pieces, but Homebase is an opportunity to explore and expand our communication skills. The editorial board will help edit and shape your ideas (with your permission) until your article accurately reflects what it is you want to say. Don't be afraid to take a chance - there is nothing to lose and plenty to learn!

Until I hear from you, I'm off to dig in the muck! Cheers!

Lisa

e-mail: info@mothersarewomen.com

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MAW Report

At least once a month, around a kitchen table somewhere in the Ottawa area, a call to order (women, women!) marks the start of another Steering Committee meeting. Agenda in hand, pens and pencils poised, staving off general tiredness (we've already put in a full day's work!) with various hot beverages and sinful delicacies (this is our night out, after all), we report, discuss and decide with an intensity which is on occasion mitigated with laughter, small talk and asides about our families as well as interruptions by wakeful children. Three, sometimes four, hours later we head for our cars, carrying armfuls of paper, brochures, mail and other related MAW material, invigorated yet exhausted by the evening. It is not a process that everyone enjoys equally (are we having fun yet?), but it is necessary and it is, after the membership itself, the heart of the MAW.

Despite some quite hilarious moments, the dynamics of the Steering Committee meetings are not conducive to sharing among ourselves in the broader sense. We are gathered to work and work we do. Although we have forged a deeper sense of friendship and alliance with one another that commitments of this kind foster, the mutual support of ourselves as women and mothers which drew us to the organization in the first place usually just isn't part of the agenda. The Steering Committee rediscovered that component, however, this February at a very special MAW Annual General Meeting.

A Special AGM

This year's AGM was held at mother tongue books which gracefully allowed us to use its premises after hours once again (Thanks, you wonderful women!). The evening was billed as a reading event and all were asked to bring a piece of literature, poetry or prose that had somehow touched their lives. This piece was to be shared with the rest of those gathered: one could chose either to read it oneself, or have it read by a volunteer. After some formal business and notification of the availability of the 1996 Annual Report, we settled into our chairs ready to listen.

The material ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. We laughed uproariously at a piece Mary Ann Pocock (art coordinator for Homebase) wrote herself because many of us felt we were already either full or closet members of her MOB organization (that's Mouthy Old Broads) who tell the world exactly what to do. Once a mother, always a mother - because caring doesn't always conveniently stop with your own children. The poignant poetry of Diana Brebner, (a former MAW member and Governor General award winner), read by Willa Egrmajer (Homebase artist, MAW web page designer and in-coming correspondence coordinator) reminded us of what talented women have been (and are) part of MAW. Marla Waltman Daschko (financial administrator) read from Marnie Jackson's The Mother Zone and brought those gathered back to the beginning of our lives as mothers and to where some of us are now. She read of the transition from the "us" to the "we" that a family undergoes with the birth of a child, and of the change yet again when that child, especially if that child is a boy, becomes separate and we as mothers are simultaneously pushed and pulled in the whole process. Sonya Nigam (out-going correspondence coordinator and in-coming financial assistant) brought us the story of a determined, ingenious black woman who baked and sold pies in order that she did not have to leave her children and work in the mills. This story of dignified choices can be found in Wouldn't Take Nothing for my Journey Now by Maya Angelou. There were even children's books read, ever familiar and still so appropriate to our adult lives. I read a section of Robert Munsch's I'll Love you Forever where the son comes to the mother and rocks her gently in her last hours of life repeating as he had heard all through his life ...I'll love you forever. Tears in our eyes, we laughed again when we moved to the all too familiar depiction in Five Minutes of Peace of a mother elephant wanting just a few minutes alone in the bathtub which Cathy Loudon (outgoing recording secretary) read. Need I say that the book ends with all her children in the bathtub with her! Joanne Stead (discussion group leader) read from Kate Braid's book of poetry Covering Rough Ground. Did you know that the circular saw was invented by a woman? Joanne captured our imaginations with a poem which related the story of a woman who ventured into the territory of tools, carpentry and construction. To the considerable surprise of her fellow male carpenters, she invented that now classic and in terms of imagery, so womanly, tool. Joanne read a second poem by Kate Braid that told of a long and difficult labour that ended with the almost immediate desire for another child despite the pain which still reverberated. Ah yes... we sighed... we remember.

This covers just some of the many special moments from the 1997 AGM and we would like to thank all who came and participated as readers or as listeners. The Steering Committee has already determined that next year's AGM will repeat this theme and we hope more of our members in the Ottawa-Carleton region can join us. We regret that those of you outside the region cannot attend, but encourage you to perhaps hold a similar event among MAW members in your community, or perhaps with your playgroup, or even a group of friends. It makes for a very exceptional evening. Copies of the Annual Report will be mailed out to associate members and are available by request with a $3.00 postage and handling charge.

MAW Web Page

One of the most exciting pieces of news from the Steering Committee, and with many thanks to Willa who volunteered to brave this new frontier, is the "birth" of a MAW Web Page. Also thanks to our members who encouraged us to get online across the country. We are now very definitely taking our first steps in this medium of communication. We see in the Internet as a continuation of what we offer women - a network of support, recognition, and information. In its infancy now, we envision great things for our Web site and see a wonderful opportunity in the interactive potential of a possible MAW discussion list. We look forward to being able to get direct input on policy issues and also to provide useful information on issues for our members on the site. MAW members from across the country could also contribute. In other words, we are looking for ways to give our members a greater voice in MAW. But for now, while our site is under construction some of what you will see on the site is familiar, for example several articles from the winter issue of Homebase, and selections from The Kitchen Table Revolution. If you go to the site you will also link with the "Politically Speaking" article on the upcoming Federal Election which appears in this issue of Homebase. Come and visit us. Note too, that we also have an e- mail address, so tell us what you think!!

E-mail Address: info@mothersarewomen.com

"Rocking the Cradle, Changing the World" Workshop

In early April, Stephanie Langford and I gave a workshop on activism at the Ottawa Valley Co-operative Preschool Association's annual conference. Although we have had a table at this conference before, this was the first year that we were invited to give a workshop. We chose rocking the cradle, changing the world as our theme. We felt it was one which we could speak to personally and because of the work of MAW. In our workshop, we wanted to provide a framework in which women could begin to understand their personal connection with activism. We began with a general discussion of the definition of activism and the stereotypes and symbols of activism. A central component of the workshop was to understand how we came to be active, on what issues, and under what circumstances. In small group discussions we were able to explore the connections between the stages of our life and the issues (large and small) in which we are active. One of the critical points here was the importance of our motherhood as a starting point for activism. At times this activism is directed at making the world a better, safer place for our children. For many of us in MAW, motherhood pushed us to seek recognition of our motherwork as something that is valued in society. In both Stephanie's and mine estimations, this was a powerful and effective workshop. I remember quite distinctly, one woman who carefully explained at the beginning of the workshop, that she really didn't consider herself an activist. At the end of the workshop, she rather proudly declared to the group that she was going home to tell her husband that not only was she an activist, but she was also a radical!

When Women Count Project

I can now confirm that MAW has finally received funding for the When Women Count: Unpaid Work and Public Policy Project. You will be hearing more about this project over the next two years as MAW attempts to facilitate a discussion about unpaid work, public policy and public education needs on the issue with national women's organizations across Canada. The first objective of the project is to make analytical links between public policy and unpaid work issues in a concrete way and to ensure that women's organizations across Canada can effectively respond to the release of the statistics gathered in 1996 in March 1998. This will be done through a MAW led working group of national women's organizations and a symposium to be held in Ottawa in mid-October 1997. The second objective is to identify the kind of information women across Canada need on unpaid work and develop a substantive Workshop and Resource Manual which will make the issue accessible to women, facilitate their own advocacy on the issue as it touches their lives, and help prepare them for the 2001 Census.

The Next Months: What's Ahead For MAW

At the end of May, MAW will be attending a Beijing Follow-up Meeting which will try to assess what has and has not been done in Canada to date in terms of follow up, will strategize on effective follow up mechanisms, including the monitoring of the implementation of the Platform for Action in Canada which was signed in Beijing, and to provide training on how to work with UN documents, agreements and conventions.

As the Federal Election has been called for June, you can be sure that MAW will be active in making our voices heard. We are prepared. We have sent the questions (see Research and Lobby link) to the political parties for their formal response and the Research and Lobby is looking forward to arranging an all candidates meeting workshop. We will also issue a press release, so it might make your local newspapers and radio/tv stations. Feel free to take the questions and write an article for your local paper, organize a community event and stir up some controversy.

This year's Annual General meeting of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) will be held in September. It is appropriate to end this MAW Report with reference to the NAC AGM. As with MAW Steering Committee meetings, not everyone who goes to NAC enjoys the process equally. And yet, for both MAW and NAC there is a sense that despite all the difficult decisions, hard work, long hours, something of substance is achieved each time. So, think of us gathered around a kitchen table, somewhere in Ottawa, debating, discussing and munching cookies.

Evelyn is currently one of the Coordinators of the When Women Count Project, but she also manages to assume a variety of aliases and get other work done too. And she never asks, Are we having fun yet?

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Homebase Magazine 1997 ©

Submissions and requests for subscriptions or back issues can be sent to:

E-mail: info@mothersarewomen.com

Mail: MAW/Homebase, P.O. Box 4104, Station E, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B1 Canada

Phone the MAW-line: 613-722-7851

Mothers Are Women 1997 ©

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