Between generations

The friendships and communities built around shared creativity can become a kind of found family, offering unexpected forms of guidance, wisdom and kinship

The group of female friends that has emerged from my mantra-chanting class in south-east London is an unlikely one. We come from different cultural backgrounds, span four decades and do completely different jobs. Spending time together doing an activity that, by its nature, requires us to listen and attune to one another, has provided us with the context for connection.

Thanks to my mother, grandmother and a network of their friends and relatives, I grew up with an awareness of the strength and wisdom that lies in intergenerational relationships between women; from losing my mother and grandmother young, I came to understand all that is missed in its absence.

The importance of intergenerational friendships is something craftswomen around the world have known for generations. In my work as a documentary filmmaker, I have had the privilege of speaking with many older craftswomen in different parts of the world. Some are among the final generation to practise their craft, holding ancestral knowledge that is at risk of dying with them. Yet when I ask what it is they would most like to pass on to the next generation, it’s usually not these ancient traditions or priceless forms of making that they most value: more often, it is the community they are part of and the connectedness of women young and old that they wish to see continued.