Woman of the South

Woman of the South (Natalie Childs), born on Dharawal Country with kinship ties to the Bundjalung Nation, is a 33 year old mother (to nine year old Kaylee) and emerging artist living on Yuin Country, Manyana, NSW.

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“As kids, my 2 sisters, 2 brothers and I spent most of our childhood alongside the riverbanks of western Sydney with my father. He taught us all how to fish, and how to recognise and name Australian gums. He told us all he knew about the waterways, soil, and native animals but most of all, he showed us the importance of silence and presence when in nature. How to truly appreciate and connect with country.

His mother, my beautiful grandmother Mary, was born on Bundjalung country. Her father was tragically killed when she was a young girl. She was taken from her mother to a state ward home in Gladesville, and was made to feel ashamed of her heritage and culture. Throughout my childhood, we knew about nans background, but we were never allowed to speak about it.

In 2019 I held my second yoga festival ‘South Coast Soul Festival’ where Yuin elder Uncle Noel Butler welcomed us to country, held a native bush tucker talk and took part in our environmental discussion panel. He asked my father to assist him in ceremony and for the first time my life, I witnessed my dad (with beautiful tears in his eyes) embrace the culture that he had always been denied. It moved me incredibly deeply. A few months later, I moved to Byron Bay, on Bundjalung country where my grandmother was born and in lockdown 2020 I began painting as a means to connect with nan.”

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Now painting from her sunlit home studio on Yuin Country (the Country where her grandmother passed), Natalie is inspired by country, and guided intuitively by Ancestry.

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“My art is my own personal representation of country, womanhood, ceremony and sacredness. I feel my work is forever changing as I learn and grow as an emerging artist with a fusion of abstract, landscape and contemporary Aboriginal art. I like to think that with every moment I spend planning a piece, with every brushstroke and each time the dot work kisses the canvas, I help to release the shame and ancestral trauma for my nan and her extended family.