Page 187 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015
P. 187
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing - December, 2015 Issue #3 - EXTINCTION / DEVOTION
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Carrying this story shifts the focus of my life. It has given me moments of transcendent beauty and
wonder. Taken me places I never would have gone otherwise—to a remote canyon high in the
Peruvian altiplano, where the children crowded around our camping stove, transfixed by the magic of
the blue gas flame.
Carrying this story fills me with fear and doubt. I worry that I will not live up to what has been entrusted
to me. I dread being accused of cultural appropriation because of my lack of Andean blood. I know that
the lives of pre-conquest Andean women are shrouded in uncertainty. These women did not get to tell
their own stories. The little we know has been distorted by the interpretations of everyone from Spanish
conquistadores to modern tour guides. There is no “true” story. Yet I’m still concerned about getting it
wrong.
Talking with women weavers on the Island of the Moon, Bolivia
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