Meg speaks with artist and friend Ruth O’Leary about her journey of mothering three boys, home educating them with her partner Tyson, and homesteading together as a family. Ruth weaves a rich story of courage-finding, as she flings aside career-centric industrial liberalism and reclaims something older, more primal and connected.
Listen to the audio here (55 mins),
or watch here.
You can head here to find out more about Ruth’s art, and for more on women’s business, you may like Patrick’s conversation with permaculturist-midwife, Eleanor Young, Recovering birth from the industrial biomedical complex. Eleanor recently published this paper on women’s experiences of free-birthing.
What a wonderful tale your friend shared about theire experience with Kangaroos
Thanks Lynda, yes we too love that story of the boys in the bush with the mob of kangaroos cutting across their path.
Oh Meg & Ruth- what a nourishing, uplifting and affirming conversation.
I found myself thinking of the similarities and connections with regards to the permeation of the western industrialised complex into art (!), likewise in birth culture- also a two true creative act. And of course, speaking to that interesting space of working within tertiary education and not using such institutions for the ‘schooling’ of our own broods! 20 years in and I’m still learning and holding space for the unfolding of teens/young adults outside of these structures with such gratitude.
Thanks once again to AaF for bringing us fringe dwelling philosophers/thinkers/gentle disrupters/creatives together through conversations such as these. We need an in-person tiny festival, haha!
So much richness but this line is sitting with me, Ruth-
“The world is hungry for stories of mother’s experiences”.
Let’s keep bringing these through!
❤️
And thanks for the mention
& link, friends. X
Thanks Eleanor, and thank you for your work!
Such a joy to hear Ruth’s rich life embodied in art, mothering “young wolves “, creating the fertile home for life to flourish as it will ripple through future generations – so much to say about many aspects of this wonder-ful talk, very moving…once started mothering doesn’t end, the privilege continues in more subtle forms… my cubs are 50 and 46. Love to you both Karina
Beautiful Karina!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful & nourishing conversation. Though I’m not a parent, I’ve been involved w/ the arts & artists for decades. After meeting a 10-year-old boy last weekend, whose parents, though not together, home-school him, which seems to involve loads of time spent in the bush, & who struck me as very perceptive, alert, curious, physically agile & expressive, quick to understand new concepts, full of bright ideas, & eager to tell stories in response to questions instead of answering in monosyllables, I shudder even more to hear of current negative attitudes to boys. I resonated to the idea of not compartmentalising ‘school’ (like learning is somehow separate to living). Blessings to you.
Thanks Shane, just like the absence of control or placebo groups in medical treatments (so as to safeguard so called ‘necessary interventions’ from thorough scrutiny), there is little to zero qualitative analysis of non-schooled children and their general well-being. Industrial school markers for success are examination marks and level of aptitude by comparison with other students, it is never about meaning, well-being, relationships or sense of belonging. Your encounter with the 10 year old – “…very perceptive, alert, curious, physically agile & expressive, quick to understand new concepts, full of bright ideas, & eager to tell stories in response to questions…” – is common to us. Like human health outside the industrial medical complex, none of this beauty of spirit in children who are not institutionalised can be measured. Herein lies the conundrum for a very sick society that only believes in things that can be measured.
What a special exchange between women. I could feel the love between them, which comes from trust and sitting in circle over many years.
Gratitude to you Meg and Patrick for bringing these conversations and people into our consciousness.
Thank you Sally, so lovely to receive your warmth.
What a gift this conversation is – it made me cry so much. Because I wanted to homeschool my children and didn’t. Because I always wanted to live off the land with my children and didn’t. Because I wished I had prioritized my art practice and didn’t. Because I want to cry amongst a circle of women and I don’t. I have so many regrets in my life. I am in my 70s now and feel so emboldened by this young spirited woman really LIVING her life. Thank you Ruth for your adventurous heart – you have inspired me to start being more courageous in my life.
Thanks Meg for your thoughtful questions. You and Patrick and Woody are such bright stars in the world. I can’t wait to see your film.
Thanks so much, Kelly for entrusting us with these regrets. We love Ruth for her adventurous heart, too. Have you heard of the work of Frances Weller? We find his work always helpful. Particularly his first book, ‘The Wild Edge of Sorrow’. You are welcome to join us in our circle around the fire, any time. With love, Meg
What a wonderful interview. Thank you, thank you. It gives me, at my ripe old age of 83, happiness and the confidence of a great future.
For many years I was involving home-school-children in ‘clay-play’ in my studio. Their imagination was boundless.