TONTS. - Matrescence Festival with Nartarsha Bamblett

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

Welcome to eighth episode of TONTS Season 5 Matrescence Festival edition, join us as we look back through our Melbourne festival from March 2025. Today we welcome you to the second day of the festival and helping us to do that is the incredible Nartarsha Bamblett, a proud First Nations leader creating safe, transformative spaces for healing, learning, and collective growth. She is the founder of Queen Acknowledgements and IndigUcation, two platforms that merge storytelling, cultural education, and holistic wellbeing, Nartarsha is committed to ensuring that the strength, knowledge, and stories of First Nations people are not only heard but celebrated. She guides individuals and organisations through meaningful cultural journeys that foster reflection, healing, and collective responsibility.For more from Nartarsha, you can head to: https://www.nartarshabamblett.com.au/For more from Claire, you can head to: https://www.clairetonti.com/ or her instagram @clairetontiFor more from Lizzy, you can head to: https://www.lizzyhumber.com/ or her instagram @lizzyhumberAnd to keep up to date with past and upcoming Matrescence festivals you can follow @matrescencefestival on instagram or go to https://www.matrescencefestival.co.ukOriginal theme music: Free by Claire TontiEditing: Maisie JGSocial Media: Surabhi Pradhan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I create, speak and write today. There are wondry people of the Kulin Nation and pay my respect to their elders past, present and merging, acknowledging that the sovereignty of this land has never been seeded. I want to acknowledge the people who have given birth on this land, raised children on this land for generations connected to country and spirit. Welcome back to a special edition of Tons for Season 5. I'm Claire Tonti. And I'm Lizzie Humber and we are the co-founders of Matressens Festival.

Listen along with us as we share live episodes from the Matressens Festival Australia that took place across two days in March 2025. And we are in day two, opening with Natasha Bamlett's Queen Acknowledgement as she invites the audience to connect to self, culture, country and community. through embodied movement and song. This was such a beautiful opening to the second day of our festival and Natasha had us all up on our feet moving. She takes us through this beautiful visualization to music. So wherever you are, we invite you to move to.

Even if you're in your car, in your kitchen, wherever we find you today, if you feel invited to move, we encourage you to do that. So as people came back in for the second day, they were meeting each other. We were grabbing a cup of coffee, maybe some breakfast. They were settling their children. And Claire was like a siren calling them into the space. So we wanted to open our next episode with Claire singing her beautiful song, Hearts, calling you into this very special episode.

Our hearts beating through time. These hands yours and mine. Beaded. beat in time same rhythm same kind cross the white brown flames

the clickety click and a train along the music came to hearts that be the same our hearts beating through time

your hands look like mine Beating, beaten is one As years and days are done Find solace in the stories Find comfort in the songs Find strength in all the numbers Of heartbeats yet to come

And when the road is winding Far from where it should Remember who you are And where they stood Our hearts beat into time Your hands wrapped in mind On shoulders we stand Two feet one heartless land

So many faces gone is gone to places we've yet to find books and battles songs and schemes somehow left behind all the song and story past and yet to be is written cross the faces of this funny family our hearts beatings beating through time your hands look like mine beating beating in time same rhythm same kind same rhythm same kind beating Thank you so much for joining us again today in this beautiful space. Before Lizzie and I welcome you officially, we have got a very special guest today, don't we? I'm going to read out an announcement.

I can feel the energy from yesterday. Can I get a show of hands of people who were here yesterday? So many of us, hello, it's just so nice to see so many beautiful faces. For those who weren't here yesterday, we're going to hold you here today. very safe space for us all to connect and to be. We are honoured today to welcome Natasha Bamblet, a proud First Nations woman and founder of Queen of Acknowledgements and Indugacation. We acknowledge Natasha's ancestors, the Yorda Yorda, Walpiri, Kunai and Rojuri.

Natasha is a powerful speaker, coach, indigenous facilitator and spaceholder. but the title she treasures most is being a mother to her two boys. Through her storytelling, language, music, dance and movement, Tash weaves her culture and lived experience as a woman and mother inspiring connection, healing and empowerment. Her work emphasises the importance of connection to self, culture, country and community, creating spaces for deep healing, acknowledgement and collective grace. Can we please welcome Natasha Bamblett to the stage?

All right. Hello everybody. Hi, give me a wave, Vishimi, Twinkles. Hello to you all and the beautiful boor eyes who are weaved in from the back and all the way to the front and the sides, yes. Oh, it just fills my heart. I'm seeing all these beautiful eyes looking at me. Hello.

Hi, I could just get so zoned in and be like with the babies this whole time. All right. Let's all just take a breath. Yeah, I don't need to tell you mammas and people here today how to do that. I think just the invitation is enough. So I'm going to invite you to continue to breathe throughout this time here with me and your time here today with one another. As Claire introduced me, I just want to share a little bit about me.

me and my story and share a connection piece with you all. My name is Natasha Nabananga Bamblet. Nabananga is my skin name. It connects me to my ancestry of over 65,000 plus years. It connects me to this beautiful country that we're gathering on that many of you, you know, call home and make home and get to raise your business. beautiful boorais and your communities and yourselves in this space. So I want to acknowledge the different lines of where it is that I come from,

my Walpuri, Wajuri, Kurnai, and Yordiota. I'm born and raised on Yordiota country in Sheperton along the Murray River. So I want to acknowledge the waters on which I've grown up and that have traveled through in between the earth. and the waters that we carry in our bodies as our own earth. I want to acknowledge this beautiful land on which we're gathering the Owandri people, Woyurong of the Kula Nations,

and extend that to all of the Kula Nations. We have the Bunurong, Banerong, Tanurong and Jajarong people. I want to acknowledge their continuous relationships with the waters, the lands, mountains, the trees, the animals and plants, the people and the culture. Their stories, their songlines, the history, the struggles and survivals. And I want to acknowledge the culture that still exists here today. I want to acknowledge if there is any First Nations people in the room, our elders,

and why we acknowledge our elders with such reverence and importance and devotion, it's because they were the children, most likely, that were part of the stolen generation, the children that were taken from mothers. So I just want to acknowledge that wound that I've carried in me as a granddaughter of both my grandmothers that were a part of the stolen generation. And to be here birthing my children in my villages and communities and to be a part of days like this, it feels. me, it's so giving. The word is just giving, giving to be in the space, to be seen and heard

and fully unapologetically all of ourselves. So I just want to acknowledge that. And I want to acknowledge all of you as well, all of your stories, your journeys, your lineages, your countries, your cultures, your people of where it is that you come from and the people that we get to share this space and place with. And I just want to share with you a piece a song of calling to this country. So I'm just going to invite you if you can to close your eyes or lower your gaze

or just come into yourself. You may want to place your hand on your heart or your womb or a place that just feels good to hold yourself in this calling as I'm going to sing with the buries here as they make their noises. The echoes of all those that have come before leaving the sounds for those that come after.

Gabbina Waka. Gambina Waka. Gambena Tatula Gambana, Bukha, Gambana, imbina. Tanguija, Buka, and gulija tippa and gulija muleena

and gulija boughu and gulija napu and gulija woka and gulija and gulija

Taking a breath in and letting it out acknowledging the lands as we awaken Mother, the country, the water, the skies, the people, acknowledging the strength of our minds, our hearts, our spirit, our body, our burrides, and the mother in us and around us. Taking a moment in this time to just check in, check into your mind. How is it feeling?

And as we travel down into our bodies, into our hearts, feeling that heart space, what's present, what's alive for you. and breathing that energy in to expand each of those places I want you to travel down into your spirit your soul what's present what's alive what's there

what's moving and lastly just feel feeling our physical body, I'm just going to invite you to have some movement maybe in your toes and your fingers, feeling the warmth, the blood, the breeze, your clothes, your breath, what feels present in your body. And when you're ready, just inviting you back into the space, gently opening your eyes, if they're not yet. And I just want to throw to you and invite you to share some words

into the space for all of us to present. What is here for you? You have something, baby. What's here for you? Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. You know I'm talking to you. And you too.

Yeah. You have lots to say. I'm listening. What else here? Connection. Gratitude. Love. Safety.

Excitement. admiration, community, acceptance. Someone's got something to say at the back there. Yeah, we got that one too, Baba. Thank you. Anything else? Safe. Respect.

nourishment and we haven't even eaten food to nourish our bodies yet you know the soul is feeling nourished just take a moment to breathe all those words in and and the rest that are still to unfold over the day so I just want to share a little story about me and and with you as you're going to be sharing story through conversations, being here with one another. But it was really beautiful to step into this space and sharing just the conversations that I've had with women and mothers in the background and before, you know, you all arrived, knowing that stepping into this space, as Claire and Lizzie had said, this is a space where we get to be all of ourselves and having it together, you know, we hear that a lot,

you know, we've probably gone through our own journeys of what that looks like and means. But with my third child on the way, one thing that I've been deeply present with is the surrender and trust, which I'm sure we've all experienced in our time, just as people experiencing life. How often are we faced with something to allow us to trust in ourselves even deeper? And there's lots of moving parts in my life as there is for all of us. And I was like, I'm going to be in a space with people who just get it, you know? And to share ourselves in a way that there is respect, there is safety,

there is nourishment in every part of ourself is when we share and we receive with one another, to deeply trust in, I use the word, you know, spirit or soul, or we call it intuition. And what a gift that we are given when we come into this world of that. So on this journey with not just the birthing of me, but the birthing of my children has birthed this version of woman that I am, that I get to be and who I continually get to become.

But I just want to leave you with this. an invitation of how much more can you let go? How much more can you lean in to the surrendering of that you know and have and are all that you need? When we deeply trust the intuition to be guided, to be where we are, when we're there, with who we're with, if it does feel safe, respectful, nourishing, connected and trusting ourselves when it doesn't, that we feel empowered enough to make the decisions to remove ourselves or move ourselves into spaces that do. And I feel so often we can feel isolated and alone and

in our own spaces or our own minds that the world doesn't get it the world doesn't see us or validate us in the complexities of motherhood, womanhood being and having a human experience that we all have, that we're all have a right to and as a First Nations woman, the gift I have, I must say, is the pain,

is the pain of the generations of women of who I've come from. It's a gift to say to you, I see you, I hear you. And I'm with you. There is nothing that anyone, especially woman or mother, can bring to me, that doesn't scare me. Because I've been there. My grandmother, Naparula, was birthed underneath a birthing tree. I come from a line of women that birthed on country, and we all have from some part or place or time.

Just understand that power is not in the past. It is now. We are here with that. That is our right, birthright. to be here and to give that on to the next. I have a message that I share and it's how are we leaving this place better than we've found it? And I'm not talking about just physical space.

Yes, it can be physical. But how are we leaving it with our minds feeling better? Our hearts feeling better. The place and the people that we leave and share it with are feeling better because we have just been here, just because our presence. So the story and the purpose of me sharing my connection, my culture, this country, our home is to say that it's here for us. And what a custodian means when I acknowledge this place,

it means that we're all responsible. We are responsible for how we move on this place. How we're living here, how we're interpreting that as our home, making a place here. And for the next woman or child or mother, mother or a person that sits there. They're in a better place just because you were there. So that's my message that I just want to share with you

as a story of a journey of coming from grandmothers who were children of the stolen generation. Knowing that I stand here with power and hope and connection and joy and community. and reverence and validation that we get to create what culture looks like for us moving forward together. And healing is here for all of us.

It is us. And when we heal, we change the whole damn world. So in so, saying that, I want to share a piece with you all. I'm going to invite you to all stand up. If you can, you can stay in your seat. But this is an invitation for us now to move into our bodies a little bit more. All right. I know you've done a lot of moving for those who were here yesterday.

and for those who are first time here can you I'm going to stand up on stage yeah that's right I'm going to just so you can see me thank you can you turn it up just a little bit

all right okay everybody got me hands the other like this and just bounce and move with your babies they're going to feel it with you we're just going to share some energy this is the healing this is what's here

we're going to click our fingers just feel the vibrations remember to breathe I'm going to call you my sisters okay we're going to pat our hands We're going to stop our feet. Feel the land beneath us vibrating, speaking to us.

The bodies that hold us to the earth us. Taking your breath in and let it out with a heart. Hands to the sky. I made it down with a sh. Now I want you to feel planted, grounded in your feet, the energy to go beneath these floors, into the soils as we deeply root, just like the trees. I want us to feel the sunrise, as the sun rises, the light that it brings us. I want you to move you away.

always the best way. I want you to interpretate these connections to earth. However feels good. We're going to bring it up. We're going to connect to the waters, the waters that rush in and out, that flow in between the water that is giving us life, the lands, the mountains that show us the heights. high, the strength, may we feel the strength of mountains, and also acknowledge the values and the depths that we've walked, that we've gone, and that we come through.

And as you look up into the skies, we acknowledge the stars and the stories, the dreaming. When you feel this crazy society, out into the strength. And in the stars, the clouds, the lightning, the connection and communication, that's always taking place. And with the lightning, we get the fires that ring us together, bring us food, one more just like that. And with our fires when we use the earth, we get the donger, the white smoke. I want you to feel this smoke. as it cleanses through the space and place our minds

and through our breath at our bodies. The air shifts the seeds, the smoke, the signals, the cleansings, the stories, and our ancestors. And as far as you can go down, whatever feels good, the seeds that we get to plant with our presence. And in that seed, when we water it, slowly rise and grow into the plants and trees

feeling that stretch the branches, the leaves and all that it holds in the memory of the trees. Our birds and our boor eyes as we hold them whether they're in your arms physically or on your shoulders

or climbing on your head at the moment wherever they are we don't just hold them in the process we hold ourselves so bring your arms out acknowledging the journeys as we breathe that in wrap our arms around ourselves if you haven't yet today take this moment to just acknowledge this body your body of the journey it's taken just to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. My name's Natasha Bamblitt. Queen acknowledgments and sharing this love from my heart, my country, my spirit and my people to you and yours. May you continue the journey of connection deep into this place with ownership, with responsibility, with empowerment and knowing that your purpose here is just leaving it better

because you were just you. Thank you very much. That is the end of episode 8 of Matressens Festival 2025. Thank you so much for listening. For more from Matressens Festival, you can head to Instagram at Matresson's Festival or you can head to matressensfestival.com for the Australian version or matressensfestable. com or matressensfestival.com. You can also find more from me at Claire Tonte on Instagram or Clairetanti.com.

And for more from Lizzie Humber, that's like number, that said, Humber, you can visit lizziehumber.com or go to Instagram at Lizzie Humber and we will speak to you next time.