I began writing this newsletter when I was living in Aotearoa. and usually open it with the greeting kia ora. Now I live in lutruwita/Tasmania, Australia (Te Whenua Moemoeā). So, it’s not kia ora anymore but it doesn’t feel like g’day or hello either.
I have a passionate interest in scars. I’m especially curious about how to tend them so that the body can access the full expression of that part which it healed with intelligence, resourcefulness and as best it could at the time.
As I have made my way from Aotearoa back to Australia, I’m appropriately confronted with a fresh look at the scars of colonisation behind me and in front of me. There’s confusion about how to act and be in right relationship in a country that does not have a treaty.
In Aotearoa, I knew myself to be initially pākehā then I learned about Tauiwi and aspire to be Tangata Tiriti. In hindsight, from my small, personal perspective, one of the powerful aspects of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the way in which (some) of the vast scars of colonisation are made visible and might be tended to with authentic honouring of the treaty.
Also importantly, scars are complex and individual. The pain that caused them might be integrated across every aspect of a person’s functioning from physical to spiritual. I can only ever imagine the pain of someone else’s scar. Especially one that was caused by my ancestors, people who looked how I look.
Without the container of a treaty, I am aware of an untethered-ness evident in me. Which creates more questions than answers here in this humble newsletter space.
There’s a feeling that so much has changed while I’ve been away from Australia. When I last lived here, I lived on the country of the Waddawurrung people. Now we are here on the country of the Mumirimina people.
Here - where my earnest, playful kids are reminding me to stop saying kūmara and start saying sweet potato. Perhaps I will know I have arrived back properly when I spontaneously ask someone to pass the sweet potato? Or there will be some bodily sensation of landing and grounding here.
In many ways it’s a to be continued moment my friends…
Kiersten x
Potential resources for body and birthy interested folks
Sara Wickham re-shared this heart warming post about midwives and knitting on her website to pay tribute to the remarkable Michel Odent, who passed recently. Thank you to whichever kind person took me aside about 16 years ago and explained that his name was not Michael O-dent.
I didn’t actually ever get to see Michel Odent speak about homebirth in person. His famous quote about how important it is that the first birth is at home was always a standout one for me though.
Places my attention has been lately…
Incredibly special moments with my tamariki and friends who are like whānau, before we left. Heartfelt goodbyes to inspiring birthing whānau.
Tuning in to the upcoming vote to keep Māori Wards in Eastern Bay of Plenty.
Planting pomegranate trees in Lutruwita with comfrey and yarrow for company and nourishment. Dreaming about whether I can get organised quickly enough to invite a swarm of bees to stay here with us at our new home - using a homemade bait hive. I didn’t ‘keep’ bees while living in Aotearoa.
Offering bodywork and homebirth midwifery in Lutruwita/Tasmania Australia
This is most definitely still a work in progress. My intention is to share some news about where (in Nipaluna/Hobart) and when I will be offering Internal Pelvic Release Work and Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner bodywork in my newsletter next month.
I’m not attending families for homebirth midwifery care at the moment, but I’ll pop an update here in my newsletter as that changes.
