THEMES AUSTRALIA | MIGRATION | HOME | GHOSTS MY CHILDREN | BIRTH | WOMEN'S BUSINESS | GRACE WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY | CONNECTION TO PLACE I worked on things till the early hours this morning, the baby stole more sleep but I got up early and I am happy to say it's done! The questions I ask myself right now: How do I explore what this place means to me using a visual language that is my own? How do tell the story of being a #Celt in this land? 25 years on the #EastCoast of #Australia - through the #highlands - on the #shores and navigating those #BigCities - days driving through the #desert into the center - how do paint what I feel here? The person who brought me here didn't stick it out, didn't make this place #home - had no respect for what was here before and didn't see nearly enough of the colours here- the irony of that man being a ghost is not lost on me. I don't want to be a ghost here. Being a 'blow in' I wonder what is it to be OF a place? Eveything is set up to make it too easy to just take so much from this land. There are towns and cities that are part of me but I am not longer part those places, OF those #communities - am I of this place yet? 3 years here, 25 years putting roots down. Does the land know me yet? Recognise my voice? I try and tread lightly, I try and add my voice to the chorus! My daughter turns 8 this week... in #Irish her name means BRIGHT. She is a bright beautiful #Australian Winter... she brightens this cold season... she brightens with the cold... loves the rain and storms and playing on and in ice. She runs warm... a true Winter baby. Even when difficult memories come up... the abuse I experienced during her birth, even when #PTSD reminds me that some things never leave you... she holds the darkness back with her SHINE. #MotherhoodIsSacred I messed up a #LargeCanvas but it lead me to discovering how much a love tearing up painted #canvas - what felt a bit devastating after waiting so long for new #supplies lead to a new #discover - finding a technique I want to use regularly in my process! We are #LayersOfRock upon the Earth's #mantle - pushing up against eachother, layer upon layer, generation upon generation. Last year a Boon Wurrung woman said to me 'you put your baby's placenta in the ground here' - she showed me how to connect my other baby to country and then asked me if I wanted to do the same thing for myself - I said I wasn't born here, I couldn't get the earth/dirt from where I was born to put into the ground. I got a bit upset at this point. She said 'you think that matters? You birthed your babies here! You're home!' What grace is that?
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