By John Richards
Fifty-two-year-old Mathilda Leone is one of Guyana’s veteran porkknockers. Coming from a family of miners she has worked in over four different mining communities and feels the time has come for a change in the way women miners are treated.
Leone was born in St Lucia and migrated to Guyana over 40 years ago, where she followed in her parents’ footsteps and took up mining. As a child, she spent years in Mazaruni, but then she decided to venture out into the Potaro region to continue on her own because she said mining made her feel independent. She later moved to Mahdia where she raised her 13 children and continued mining in the region.
Life became harder as the price for the mineral went up and they were being bullied out of business by coastlanders, she said. However, over the years, she learnt that mining called for