It’s a great thing meeting up with old friends which I did in Dunedin recently. And made new ones as well. One thing among many great things about publishing a book is that you get to say hello to lots of people you might not have seen for a while and they are all smiling.
The panel on Writing Women into History, Karen Zelas (The Trial of Minnie Dean, pub Makaro Press), Paddy Richardson (Through the Lonesome Dark, pub Upstart Press), and me (These Two Hands, Makaro Press), with Mary McCallum, writer (The Blue) and publisher (Makaro Press) brilliantly compering, went really well. You know its not that long ago really thatRachel McAlpine said (1975 Rachel?) something like you could see the publisher’s red faces everywhere as they realised the truth of their sad record of not publishing women writers. Now we are published everywhere. Its still difficult but at least we have a hell of lot more opportunities than we did then.
Now I’m going to get on my hobby horse. If you haven’t already written something about your life now is the time to start. Even if you simply write a list of things (like a grocery list) with dates, its better than nothing. So many people have said to me ‘I wish Mum and Dad had left some notes about their lives but too late now.’
And I say, ‘Not too late for you to leave some notes for your kids/friends/colleagues. And they say ‘but I haven’t done anything’ which makes me want to shout and jump up and down with irritation because of course they have done wonderful things. Like I said to my granddaughter Abby Marie when I was writing These Two Hands, ‘I’m getting bored with the main character.’ And she said ‘but we’re not, so keep on.’
All women write themselves into history of course but that history is often not told so only their friends, lovers or families, know about it. And although its getting better a lot of academic history is still mainly about the male histories. Whether you read about music, sport, theatre, whatever, more of us need to be there.
Its not a lot to ask. You don’t have to do more than sit down and make a list. A few dates, when you went to school, work, socialised, sport, needlework, knitting, gardening, cooking, child-rearing, committee work, standing on corners asking donations for some good cause? Clothes, shoes, bags, all are part of our history. Television, film, choirs, teaching, just get a notebook and write all the dates and memories down.
We all have a responsibility to write women into history and our first move is to make some notes about our own. This means you, okay? Not your friend, your mother, your sister, your lover, you.
So get cracking…
