Invitation to Addooyyee Sisterhood

In our pilot project of Addooyyee Sisterhood, we will reclaim the richness of these repressed knowledges and practices of Addooyyee to empower young women and girls. We explore the core values and principles of relationality, solidarity, equity, and justice and what they meant in the Addooyyee practices and how they can be reframed to highlight the possibilities and pathways of gender justice in the diaspora. We will co-learn and unlearn the various rituals, songs and dances, and the values they uphold. And we will reframe them for our global context together.

If any of these activities entice you and you are interested in participating in this project, please give us a shout and we will be delighted to welcome you with warm open arms.

Eliana Suarez has been working with the local community in Ayacucho, where the video was filmed, for more than 10 years. While rates of violence against women are not necessarily higher than elsewhere in Peru or the rest of the world, “what’s different is that the community wants to do something about it,” says Suarez.

Irreecha is an Indigenous Oromo thanksgiving celebration. The word irreecha simply means lush green grass plucked and offered for gratitude, blessings, or prayers. But irreecha is also a weeks-long national thanksgiving festival marking seasonal transitions annually and in resonance with natural phenomena.

The most colorful irreecha celebrated across the Oromo land and in the Oromo diaspora around the world is the one around the end of September, marking the end of the rainy season. In many cases, Oromos and their friends gather for annual rituals of thanksgiving, cleansing, renewal, and affirmation.