Before The Blood

October 2025 - January 2026 , Anarcha’s Gallery, The Vagina Museum

In collaboration with The Vagina Museum, a feminist organisation that is sex worker-inclusive, trans-inclusive, LGBTQ+-inclusive, intersectional feminist space., we are so thankful to have partnered with an organisation that intentionally creates space for the intersection of migrant and menstrual health.

When did we have our first period? Who was with us? What did we know? How did it change us? What remedies do we use for pain or fatigue? Who are our confidantes? What do we teach our children? What cultural wisdom can we reclaim in remembrance?

In coming together and having these conversations, stories emerged. Stories of periods suffered in silence and solitude; wisdom passed down from mothers or snippets of information passed between cousins; menarche experienced in the company of only a stoic father on one extreme and the whole village on the other. Far from painting a unified picture, our respective stories illustrated the breadth of lived experiences from culture to culture, country to country.

Thank you to Katja Holtz for organising this workshop and for all particapants who attended to share their experiences verbally and creatively.