birthchoices acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waterways where we have the privilege to live and work, the Bunurong and Wurundjeri Tribes of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to the Elders past and present. We acknowledge that before colonisation, culturally safe birthing was an uninterrupted practice for over 60,000 years, with great diversity of rituals, ceremonies and practices across the lands we now know as Australia. We acknowledge that intergenerational trauma, systemic racism, remoteness and poverty now contribute to First Nations mothers and babies having poorer outcomes on average than their non-Indigenous counterparts, and that access to Birthing on Country models of care ought be a national priority.

photography by Cara Mand