Our Story is just beginning...

… and it is a story that has never ended. It's a story that has been sleeping in this land waiting for the time of remembering. 

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The full moon of 8 June 2025 brought together two women who carry the medicine of the old ones. Ouma Gina Claasens, village elder and herbalist, and myself Nicole Klassen. I had moved to McGregor just 2 days before, following a call from the young women of this community, and the old women of this soil. 

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There was no plan. We just started walking the land, talking, sharing stories of our heritage, the plants and our dreams. Walking, tracking signs and laughing a lot. The younger generation soon noticed and started joining. Sometimes they needed money, but there was also a call for love articulated through one young woman who from the depth of addiction asked through tears ‘Auntie, Auntie, wanne gaan ons iets doen?’ / Auntie, Auntie, when are we going to do something? 

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We prayed and kept walking with them to truly listen. We needed a way into a deeper conversation. Then one of the women asked for money for deodorant, and my roots shook. With embodied clarity, I replied that I can teach them how to make their own deodorant and more. Up to that point I had only ever made beauty products or medicinal ointments for my personal use, ceremonial purposes, or to gift to friends. I recognise now that this was preparation.  

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One year later, we have a Beauty School rapidly developing from a love project into a registered non-profit company (NPC), and we are now in the process of registering as a public benefit organisation (PBO). This may not have been planned, but it is a divine plan that we accept, with a deep bow. 

 

Our circle is growing with supportive directors, community members and sisters all over the world. We are watching the life force strengthening in the Beauty School women. With thanks to the Big Mother school out in our natural landscape, they now have the courage to be curious. They are strengthening enough to risk hope. Unspoken dreams have started to find voice as they more frequently dare to speak the wishes they have for themselves and their children. 

 

We make nourishing body butters, cleansing salts and alchemical soap. The women are training in the healing arts of plant knowledge, therapeutic massage, beauty care and business skills. 

 

It is our prayer that what we offer will ignite a sense of belonging, identity and purpose within the women such that they will know how to make a good life for themselves and their community, through beauty.