This collection of graphic stories illustrate Indigenous women’s movements and struggles that are so powerful and so staggeringly minimized in history.  

Reading about female elders in the Kalinga region of northern Philippines as they fought to protect the river, or of Dolores Cacuango and the symbol of resistance she became as Mama Dula for the Kichwa community in Ecuador, or of Shanti Chaudhary’s dedication to a life of writing and law, all of these herstories will leave you feeling thoroughly inspired. Each of the stories are written and illustrated by different folx and the overall collection is edited by Sonja Eismann, Maya, and Ingo Schöningh. 

These stories also serve as a reminder of how often communities of women with little institutional power have toppled and shook systems around the world. I hate that so many have to fight, but if they do, the best we can do is to ensure their stories are not erased, moreso, that they are celebrated as beacons of hope for others who struggle. 

To all the people who use cynicism as a veil to stay within the comfort of the status quo, I would recommend this book for reading, or for hitting over the head with, but mostly reading. 

I also love that this collection was a result of an open call to record feminisms in the Global South as comics by the Goethe-Institut Indonesien that saw 218 applications from 325 applicants! I would have loved to know about all the feminist activist movements included in those applications. Their website includes more stories beyond the 8 featured in the book. 

I’m thankful for this creative and artistic sisterhood of feminist remembering and recording.