The Blackbutt

The Blackbutt
2024
mixed media on canvas
100 x 80cm
After my son was born, it was important to me that I buried his placenta on our Ancestral lands. In this way, his placenta would connect him to country in the same way that it bound him to me in the womb.
We walked through bushland toward the sacred Stockton sand dunes and asked for guidance as to where to bury it. As we approached the dunes, my mother spotted this imposing blackbutt which had a large opening at the base. She exclaimed that we should bury it inside the tree, so that it would be cradled and protected by the old ones.