Coming of Age

In this closing episode, the rite of passage Grayson Perry explores is one with meaning and importance we often struggle to comprehend in modern Britain: coming of age. Grayson travels to the most remote place he's ever visited - deep into the Amazonian rainforest in western Brazil - to spend time with the Tikuna people, the region's largest indigenous group. He witnesses a coming of age ritual for teenage girls. Having been kept in seclusion from the rest of the community, and given instruction by the elder women of the village, Tikuna girls undergo an elaborate ceremony to mark their becoming an adult. It's a sometimes shocking event which challenges many of our ideas about how best to help young people make the difficult transition from child to adult. Back in the UK, Grayson meets a group of teenage girls from the Lewisham Young Women's Hub in south London.