Conclusion: a coming of age with familiar friends

Auto/biographical stories that provide valuable insights of many kinds were shared in this book. The locus of interest in the storytelling moved continually between individual and collective memoirs so as to yield new perspectives on the social and religious practices which continually shape, and are shaped by, women. The conversational interview process provided a group of Australian girls and women with a site to remember, to laugh and to talk about their past, present and futures. Nuances of similar patterns and shapes surfaced across different maternal genealogies foregrounding the strength and complexities associated with mother– daughter relationships. Expectations of how religion is to be enacted at particular periods of time were contemplated highlighting different generational understand- ings of spirituality.