Words by Kirli Saunders
I’m sitting on stunning Dharawal and Wodi Wodi Country as I pen this; the sun is shining and the sky is the kind of blue you see glittered on the inside of abalone shells. The escarpment is tinted a deeper shade, reminding us that over the mountains, somewhere far south and west, snow is falling thick.
Here we observe the seasons a little differently, paying attention to flowers and their accompanying migrations. The wattle is blooming bright when I ride my brumby through the bush lately, and the gymea lily opening high on the escarpment lets us know that the Humpback whales are on their way north to birth their babies.
I mention this because the sacred East Coast Songline is sung, celebrated, and danced by our Women. From Nuenonne all the way to Badtjala, and on all of the Countries in between, our sissies, Aunties, our Grannies and babies – we will all welcome these ocean Mothers as they journey past our shores to our neighbours. And when they return, travelling south with their bubs later in the year, we will hold ceremony for them again.
And this is Sacred Women’s Way.
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Hailing from Gunai, Djirringanj, Dharawal, Bidjigal and Biripi lands on this songline (and Gundungurra over the Mountain) – I’m a proud Saltwater woman. I’m also the author of nine books, a visual artist, and a singer-songwriter. I create to connect to make change, and I love working with my community to tell stories and honour Country, culture and kin.
One way I do this is through poetry. And more recently, I’ve been collaborating with my illustrator and musician friend, Mark Chester Harding, to take poems and turn them into songs for our music project, Cooee.
Sacred Women’s Ways is our debut single, released in June 2025. Originally, a poem with the same title from my second poetry collection, Returning (Magabala Books, 2023), it’s written with love and respect for our Matriarchs, and in honour of the ways we hand down knowledge through cell and story. This song seeks to pay homage to the love, kindness, generosity and intuition of the Women in my family and community.
As you listen to it, it sounds like you’re on an epic road trip, you and all your Matriarchs packed into the car on an open road. You’re headed along that East Coast, stopping to share a feed by a fire on the sand. You’re rising with the sun, a cuppa in your hand, laughter all around you. The world is your oyster and your sissies are beside you for this epic unveiling.
With backing vocals by Mudjingaal Yangamba, a First Nations South Coast women’s choir, Sacred Women’s Ways is a buoyant anthem, something joyful, like the warm currents that our whales cruise on in the winter. It’s old, like this wisdom handed down to us by all the Women who’ve come before us, by the women who raised us and taught us how to swim here. And it’s new too – a song for this time.
As we recorded it on Gadigal lands, I thought of many of the Matriarchs in my life whom I know and love: my mum, an Elder in our Community, and one of the most generous and resilient women I know. I thought of my Dad’s mum – Nan, who spoke to me about the women’s liberation movement and never let hardship burden her. I thought about the matrairchs on Mum’s side – Aunty Val, a respected Elder over the Mountain who taught language and was as staunch as they come. I thought of my Aunty, a musician and poet who inspired me to make. I thought about my Sister, who will be a Mum soon too. And all of my nieces and nephews. As we recorded, I thought of all the Elders, Sissys and Aunties in my community. And all of my friends, the women who are beside me through it all.
This song is for them, it’s for us, the Matriarchs – a work written with so much love for our Sacred Women’s Ways.
