So what is a She Shed? Well, most everyone knows a Man Cave is a dedicated place for the guys of this world away from the domestics of home, a place where the ‘real work’ can be done. So, She Shed’s are sheds devoted to the work that women do outside of the domestic part of life. Multimedia artworks from iron work to pottery to working with nature’s abundance in settings bucolic and lush on this lovely island in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island.
For the past 22 years, a group of women on Saltspring Island - Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse or SWOVA - was developed in response to ‘a horrific incidence of violence against a woman and her daughter’ in the Saltspring community over 20 years ago. Since then they have been providing education, raising awareness and developing solutions to prevent violence and abuse on Saltspring Island. This She Shed Tour was this year’s fundraiser for this very important program.
A quick ferry trip in brilliant sunshine to Saltspring Island, we met with our host. For the rest of the day we were driven by said host from one She Shed to another - some of them obvious places of hard work to the more gentile and decorative. We did not get to discover each of the 14 She Sheds because of the interesting conversations we shared with the proprietors. I’ll not be able to do this tour justice in tonight’s post, so will continue tomorrow.
“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy
not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
~ Socrates
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