BY ELIZABETH HUBER
SASKATCHEWAN

Women all over the world gathered earlier in the week to celebrate International Women’s Day.

In Swift Current, the women who attended, drew inspiration from Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Nearly 40 years ago she began sharing her music and messages with the world and her song Universal Soldier became an anthem for the peace movement.

We have to better understand history in order to better the future, she told the audience of women gathered at the Living Sky Casino Sky Centre.

Men must also understand women and women have to better understand men, because the genetic brains are programmed differently.

“Let’s never fail to celebrate and be happy for what has already been accomplished by so many,” Sainte-Marie began, her presentation.

“There is no time for bitterness, there is too much to be done.”

“Let bitterness go for a moment, let the guilt go for a moment,” and take what is bad, turn it into “fertilizer and grow something new.”

March 8 marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

The early 1900s was a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies, describes the International Women’s Day website.

In 1910, the idea of an International Women’s Day was developed so every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day to press for women’s demands.

Sainte-Marie was invited by Swift Current’s International Women’s groupr