Group Counseling Theories and Techniques Summer Session

Daughters of Copper Woman

By Anne Cameron

Sometimes the women warriors would meet without the men, to sit in a circle and talk

women talk, and if a woman had somethin’ botherin’ her, or puzzlin’ her, or scarin’ her, or

makin’ her feel uneasy, she’d say what it was. She could take all the time she needed to talk

about it, but it was expected she’d have put some of her own time into findin’ the words and

not talkin’ in circles, endlessly, takin’ up everyone else’s time.

Then the other women in the circle who had maybe had somethin’ the same happen in

their lives would talk about it, and about what they’d done, or hadn’t done, and sometimes

out of it would come an answer for the sister with problems. And even if not, sometimes it was

enough to just have been heard and given love.

It was expected that besides just talkin’ about what was botherin’ you, you’d do

somethin’ about it. Usually it’s better to do almost anythin’ than let things continue if they’re

botherin’ you. But sometimes the best thing you can do is nothin’. Sometimes you have to wait

for the right Time before you can do.

A woman would come to the circle as often as she needed, but the circle wasn’t there to

encourage a woman to only talk about her problems. The first three times you came with the

same story, the women would listen and try to help. But if you showed up a fourth time, and it

was the same old tired thing, the others in the circle would just get up and move and re-form

the circle somewhere else. They didn’t say the problem wasn’t important, they just said, by

movin,’ that it was your problem and it was time you did somethin’ about it, you’d taken up all

the time in other people’s lives as was goin’ to be given to you, and it was time to stop talkin’

and do somethin’.
Group Counseling Theories and Techniques Summer Session

A woman might not know what was botherin’ her. And it was fine to go to the circle, or

even ask to have one formed, and just sit with women, and listen and maybe get strength from

smiles and cuddles and just bein’ with women you knew loved you (1981, pp. 133-134).

Cameron, A. (1981). Daughters of copper woman. Vancouver, Canada: Press Gang Publishers.