Land + Body

This series is the start of an exploration into the connections between the body and the land. This concept is not a new one; in fact it is probably the oldest concept of all time. The concept that our physical and mental wellbeing are intrinsically linked with the environment that surrounds us is evident in almost every culture. For First Nations people, land relates to all aspects of existence- culture, language, spirituality, law, family, and identity. This deep relationship between people and the land is often described as ‘connection to country’.

Unfortunately with the increasing number of people living in urban areas, the continuous destruction and degradation of the natural environment, and the loss of knowledge from Indigenous cultures, more and more people are living disconnected from nature, leading to a harmful loss in physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Using the visual language that I know, I am comparing body formations to landscapes, hips to hills, creases to rivers, wrinkles to bark; a gentle reminder of what we are a part of, where we come from and where our bodies will eventually go back to in some from.

This series ‘blood moon’ refers to the push and pull motion that many people who menstruate experience monthly, the motion that the tides also experience from the gravitational pull of the moon.