Remembering the old ways.
Reviving the sacred.
Our Philosophy
For generations, women have gathered around the great mysteries and transitions of life.
We have bled, birthed, mourned, created, celebrated and cared for one another. Across cultures and traditions, women have gathered in different ways to share knowledge, mark important transitions, tend to the body and pass wisdom from one generation to the next.
There is something in this way of being that we believe is worth remembering.
Like the Earth, we are cyclical beings. We move through seasons of creation and rest, birth and death, holding and releasing, becoming and beginning again. Our bodies change, our identities change, and throughout a lifetime we cross thresholds that ask us to leave one version of ourselves behind and step into another.
Yet many of these passages now happen without acknowledgement.
We hide our first blood. We enter motherhood with little ceremony for the woman who has also been born. We carry loss behind closed doors. We arrive at menopause often without the wisdom of women who have walked before us. And the transition into elderhood may pass without being recognised at all.
What might change if these moments were witnessed in gathering and ceremony?
What if girls grew up knowing their bodies were worthy of reverence rather than shame?
What if women had somewhere to bring their questions, their blood, their births, their grief, their wisdom and their stories?
What if life's great transitions were not things we endured, but thresholds we were supported to cross?
This is the philosophy at the heart of The Red Tent Australia.
Our Vision
We envision a future where every girl and woman is supported, witnessed and honoured through the transitions of her life.
A future where girls grow up with knowledge of their changing bodies rather than shame or fear.
Where becoming a mother is recognised as a profound transition in her life, and mothers are surrounded by community.
Where grief has somewhere to go.
Where menopause is understood not as an ending, but as a threshold into another season of womanhood.
Where elders have a valued place within our communities and somewhere to pass on what they have learned.
And where women do not have to navigate life alone.
We envision the return of the village.
Our Mission
Our mission is to change the way girls and women are supported through life's great transitions by restoring rites of passage, reconnecting women with the wisdom of their bodies and rebuilding the village around them.
We are working towards a growing network of Red Tents, practitioners, educators and communities across Australia, creating more opportunities for women to gather, learn, share wisdom and find support through the different seasons of their lives.
At the heart of this mission is our vision to establish a permanent Women's Centre.
The Women's Centre will be one physical expression of a much larger vision: to help rebuild a culture of connection around women, wherever they live.
It takes a village to rebuild one.
Red Tent Australia is a community-led movement with a vision bigger than any one woman.
Your support helps us grow a national network of women, restore rites of passage, create accessible resources and gatherings, and work towards our vision of a permanent Women's Centre - a home for the village.