In the manner of Woman
by Joanne Lane Our donkey wallah's youngest brother was married in a pine-forested hillside dwelling on the route Heinrech Harrer took when he escaped from India into Tibet. In the small village of Belkot the groom was shaved, had his puja and his hands henna'ed and amidst a procession of drums, horns, tambourines, donkeys, dancing and many men was carried in a wooden carriage and taken across the Himalayan foothills to collect his bride. They returned many hours later, mostly drunk, with another carriage cloaked in a red veil. As we approached they pulled back the curtain to reveal a tear-stained fifteen year old village girl. She had never left her own village before and amongst this drunken rabble was taken to wed a man she had never seen. In the groom's village the other women were waiting for her, ready to provide assurance and help her through events they'd also once taken part in. The image of the tear-stained bride and the women rallying together are some of many that have stuck with me through my travels as a photojournalist in over 25 countries. Women are incredibly diverse in the hardships they face and the joys they experience. It doesn't matter where they are placed in the world. There's a common thread of women and womanhood whether they are out working in the fields of Thailand or carrying bottles of wine in Italy. All have daily routines whether it's bathing by the River Ganges in India or by their house-over-the-sea in Papua New Guinea. Mothers still have to breast-feed their babies even if they have coils of necklaces like the women on the Burmese border. They work to feed their families be it by milking their cows like the Gujar nomads in northern India or harvesting grains in Laos. In Sri Lanka there are leaves to pick, and in Italy meals to prepare. There's nothing particularly startling about what they are doing - once you look beyond the clothes, jewellery, or back their lives sometimes are not so different to ours. All women experience work, travel, leisure, marriage and family life with accompanying joys, hopes, sorrows, pains and trials. What's most amazing is the spirit in how these women live their lives. A radiant smile they can produce at the end of a days labour, their willingness to share their last glass of tea or empty a bed for a guest to sleep well in a mud hut or a palace. The image of a number of women in my travels have particularly stuck with me. In an eastern Turkish hammam a woman in a lacy black bra and panties washed me while smoking a cigarette - perhaps in defiance of strict religious rules her country imposed on women in regards dress and behaviour. In remote central Sardegnia a grandmother with no English took me in late at night from a bar when I missed a bus. I stayed with her family for several days and was invited to her daughter's wedding. In Doomadgee in north-west Queensland a group of greying Aboriginal grandmothers hunted wild bee, turtle and fish along croc-infested river banks ... barefoot. In Sri Lanka the colourful sari'ed women would give me the most toothy grins even after being berated by the manager at the weigh-in. The first step to eradicating problems like female impoverishment, illiteracy, degradation, slave labour and prostitution is by recognising their individual struggles and the beauty in each one. ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Joanne Lane is a Brisbane born photojournalist who specialises on travel subjects. Two years after graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Queensland in 1996 she left for India initially and has been travelling since. Her journeys have crossed the South Pacific, to Asia, Africa, Europe, North Africa and back again. The people Jo met during her years travelling have not just been noted as snapshots but moments in peoples lives, each one telling its own story of that persons existence. Every smile, grimace, wrinkle, hand gesture or action is a record, and sometimes the only one, of an important life. VISITEDPLANET.COM
This website was launched in 2002 with the intention of both showcasing images, funding further travels and to help the plight of the less fortunate around the world. A percentage of profits of all sales is passed on to different aid organisations or charities. A people series of greeting cards is available online. Email admin@visitedplanet.com BOOK HERE |
