Creativity, Joyful Living and the Power of Women’s Stories

MamaCreative 'Living a Creative Life' Conversation hosted by Anna Kellermann

“Creativity is woven into the very nature of women.”

Faith Agugu

Last week, I was honoured to be a guest at a panel for “Living a Creative Life,” hosted by the luminous Anna Kellermann of MamaCreatives, alongside five powerhouse wise women, including our very own Rowena Robinson and our 2024 Sydney speaker, Maggie Hamilton. Being in their presence reminded me that creativity isn’t a hobby; it is how many of us have survived, healed and learned to shine.

Creativity born from adversity

Each woman’s story showed how creativity can thrive even in the harshest conditions.

• One speaker, a Holocaust survivor, spoke of witnessing the absolute extremes of human behaviour. Rather than turning away, she allowed those experiences to shape her work on moral ambiguity – exploring the grey areas of humanity rather than simple “good” or “bad” stories.

• Rowena described growing up surrounded by community violence and absent fathers. Creativity, for her, was not optional; it was a necessary way to make sense of chaos. Now, at 79, she is painting and writing, proving it is never too late to make your creative life real.

• Others shared how they fought through racial barriers, academic “failure,” and being outsiders in new countries. Again and again, the message was the same: fear may sit in the passenger seat, but creativity keeps driving.

Listening to them, I was reminded that so many of us have turned to creativity, writing, art, performance, movement, as a way to metabolise what the nervous system cannot hold on its own.

The fierce gift of age

As you know, ageing is at the heart of Silver Sirens. What thrilled me in this conversation was how clearly the women named ageing as an amplifier of creativity, not its end.

Rowena, turning 79, spoke about finally feeling permission to live on her own terms after a lifetime of meeting everyone else’s expectations. She’s joining me in Africa for her birthday. A living proof that older women don’t shrink; they expand.

For me, decades of meditation and inner work mean that each year, I feel freer to create from my essence, not from performance or people-pleasing. Many women in the room nodded as they talked about this: that after menopause, loss, grief and countless reinventions, something softens… and something fierce awakens.

This is exactly what we celebrate at our Sydney Silver Sirens gathering, women ageing into their power, voice and visibility.

Creative work in the world

The panel also shared some of our current projects as examples of how creativity and meaning can meet:

• Art and social impact: A panellist spoke about “Holding Light—Artist Responses to the Bondi Massacre,” an exhibition at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery bringing together artist responses to a recent tragedy. The intention is to carve out a reflective, sacred space amid community shock, to hold grief and beauty side by side.

• Writing and teaching: Another panellist described her upcoming online writing course, focused on mind–body–spirit writing and using personal experience as a wellspring for inspiration and healing.

Both projects highlighted how our creative work can become a form of service: not just self-expression, but collective medicine.

Creativity in education: from STEM to STEAM

An audience member raised an important concern: young people who love the arts are being pushed towards STEM-only pathways, often at the expense of their creativity.

We spoke about the importance of shifting from STEM to STEAM – integrating the Arts into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Some educators are already doing powerful work in this area, researching how to restore creativity to school curricula that have been stripped back for years.

For those of us in midlife and beyond, this also raised a personal question: where has my own early creativity gone, and how might I gently invite it back?

An invitation to you

As I left the event, I felt both humbled and energised. To sit in a circle with women whose lives have held war, migration, violence, sexism, racism, illness and loss – and to witness that what rises from all of that is art, laughter, story and courage, is nothing short of miraculous.

So this month, I offer you a few gentle invitations:

• Ask yourself: Where does creativity show up naturally in my life right now? (Cooking, gardening, dressing, speaking, grandparenting, problem-solving – it all counts.)

• Notice: Is there a small, manageable way I can give this part of me more space this week? Ten minutes of journaling, a short walk with your camera, and rearranging a corner of your home.

• Reflect: In what ways has adversity shaped my creative gifts? What have I made – internally or externally – out of what I have lived through?

With love, courage and a deep bow to your creative spirit,

P.S. If your creativity feels far away right now, please know: it has not left you. It is patient. Sometimes it only needs the smallest invitation to return.

Big Hugs,Faith & The Silver Sirens Team