Jacinta Cross
Jacinta Cross is a public health midwife and a creative arts practitioner. She is passionate about reforming the policies and health systems that surround birth and death to include more community driven, holistic practices. Jacinta works with childbearing women to express their experiences of pregnancy, birth and motherhood through creative arts mediums.
Jacinta co-wrote 'Labyrinth of half-eaten stars' with Sheree Stewart. Sheree is an indigenous woman of Wergaia country in the north-west Mallee. She is a midwife, mother of six children, and a keeper of songlines and stories. She is the founder of Birthsong Press. 'Labyrinth of half-eaten stars' is her second publication that describes and honours women's experiences.
Williamstown beach has been a place I've been drawn to throughout my early adulthood. It's a quiet place where the sea meets the earth, so close to the city. I've often found myself getting on a train in the middle of a busy work week, planting my toes firmly on the sand and swimming around the buoys. I moved to the area six months ago, and I'm lucky enough to live just a few hundred metres from the beach. Since moving here I've explored the foreshore, the history of the area, the bluestone buildings and botanic gardens.
Labyrinth of half-eaten stars, Birthsong Press, 2015.
A collation of poetry and short prose, labyrinth of half-eaten stars is a work of storytelling as medicine. Through the archetypal motifs of birth and death, labyrinth of half-eaten stars powerfully describes women’s experiences of love, violence, hope and healing. Two midwives share intertwined narratives ranging from raw and real truth to mythological retellings of stories and events. With an indigenous author, the work is deeply connected to songlines and country. It is mythopoesis and sacred storytelling.