Musing with Ella Noah Bancroft

Ella Noah Bancroft is Bundjalung woman born in Australia. She is a descendant of the Bundjalung peoples of Northern NSW, and also has blood lines to Scotland and England. She is a Connection Therapist, Mentor, activist and creative, carbon neutral event coordinator. She is currently on the board for Women Up North. Women Up North is a Northern NSW service for women, children and young people who have experienced domestic or family violence or abuse. She is also the founder of “The Returning” and Yhi Collective.

What does it mean to be a woman in the world today?

To be a woman in the world today, means being resilient, being brave and making your own
initiations into womanhood because our society doesn’t teach initiations the right way. We are taught
to work, to be quiet, to look pretty and to make money if we want to be seen as successful, because that is the message our mainstream society feeds young women, either sell your looks or your time to make the bucks. We have entered the grandmother period. The time where we get to return to female energy. This is a global empowerment. Now is our time to use our energy for the good, to look after the planet and think about the next generations. I use my voice as a tool for change but it's not all talk, I also think we must be willing to get off the screens and action our work. My lifes work is embedded in social justice but also in integrity, respect and never playing small.

What are the major issues and problems women face in our society?

Superficially things may have seemed to change for women but our society is still riddled with sexism and unbiased advantages for men through their own biology. I want to start seeing women being paid for “bleed days”. Days where we bleed and we do not have to work but we are paid for it. The major issues we face as women is an increasing amount of homelessness,, due to divorces and not being paid superannuation or any money in fact while being pregnant and raising children. Also many women and their children become homeless due to domestic violence. We are still facing one woman per week who is dying at the hands of their partner from domestic violence and frankly thats just fucked.

How has the system and society failed women in the past? And how can we change it for the future?

The economic system of this country fundamentally opposes womens biology. It is a patriarchal, colonial system set up to favour men. The need to be fast, to be productive, to be goal orientated, to be well and to have energy are all things that enable the accumulation of wealth. This places women at a disadvantage due to our nature and our bodies. Until we start to see that our system is set up with a bias towards men then we will never create true equality. We must change the system. We must fundamentally get to the core of the problem and stop trying to make women feel inadequate and less then. Our society grades women on their successfulness if they reach mainstream ideals of success that are dominated by a male perspective. The system fails our body, our right to be informed about our choice to birth, a right to live in community with each other alleviating the
pressures and stresses of parenting, let alone single parenting for many mothers.

How important is the role of community in support of women and girls health and well-being?

Community is imperative in repairing the damage we have created for women and those identifying as women in the past. We carry on the traumas of our mothers, grandmothers and those who have come before us and we must see that because of history there is a current of distrust amongst women. All of our community decisions must start by centring women and mothers. When we start centering our women in our decision and choices, we can move away from the narrative that drives profit as the purpose of living and start to see how the wellness of mothers and women ripple out into our community to create change on a larger scale. Our elder women need to be held up, voices amplified and those women seen as our truest form of wisdom through deep reverence to what they been through. Women must be centered. We are the givers of life, the bearers of magic and the
wisdom keepers.

If you could share one practice that can empower and inspire our Muse community, what would it
be?

This is simple. Its a practice I live by. It is practicing everyday sharing. Open your heart to generosity. If your business, how are you sharing back your profits to marginalised communities? If you're an individual, how do you share with your community, your time or money?

Follow Ella for more inspiration at ellanoahbancroft.net and @ellanoahancroft_