An Original Instruction: Woman Is the First Environment

That woman is the first environment is an original Instruction. In pregnancy our bodies sustain life... At the breast of women, the generations are nourished. From the bodies of women flows the relationship of those generations both to society and to the natural world. In this way is the earth our mother, the old people tell us. In this way, we as women are earth.

- Katsi Cook, Mohawk midwife, 2007