From disconnection to deep intimacy with myself, my body and all of life.
Kia ora tātou
Ko Mauao te maunga
Ko Kaituna te awa
Nō Tauranga-Moana ahau
Ko Hogg tōku whānau
Ko Ila Teagan tōku ingoa
My name is Ila. I come from the lands of Tauranga-Moana. Mauao is my mountain and Kaituna is my river.
My family lines run through the Bay of Plenty region of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Further back, we originated from Scotland and Scandinavia.
I am still yet to voyage into my ancestry and learn deeply of my lineage. It is a journey my heart longs for.
As the steward of Earth Woman now, I have a few stories to share. However, since we are unfortunately not around a campfire, I'll keep it brief.
Let's go back to 2021.
I was 19, fresh out of school, and my life changed dramatically one afternoon when I received a phone call.
The nurse on the other end of the phone hesitated as she informed me that my blood tests had come back positive for Type 1 diabetes, and that soon my pancreas would stop producing insulin and I would need insulin to survive.
Over the next year, I progressively got sicker until I was given insulin about a year later. I was skinny and felt nauseous all the time.
Yet I continued to solo travel and live my life.
I had no idea what was happening within my body, and I didn't want to accept what felt like lifelong sentence.
I felt disconnected from my body and from the emotions it brought. Almost like I was living a double life.
I know what it feels like to not understand the expressions coming through your own vessel, and to feel unsupported in the process.
Something began to change when I started to recognise that my body desperately needed me to look at it, to turn my gaze within and begin the voyage towards accepting my body and the way my heart felt inside.
This spiralled me deeper into my stomach, into my womb, into my body.
Every few hours, I required an insulin injection into my stomach to keep me alive. And fuck, some days I couldn't handle the pressure of what it took to stay alive.
At first, it felt extremely painful to feel all the feelings I had avoided.
To sit with the reality of what my body was going through, and the way it made my brain feel — out of control.
Over time, piece by piece, tear by tear, I became more familiar with my inner landscapes and began to see my light and strength.
I began to gain more capacity to feel and to be with what was alive within me. Cultivating strength over seasons and years.
And of course, my people helped day and night with injections, the blood sugar roller coaster and carbohydrate ratios of kai — food.
This was the initiation. It woke me up. But it took some time.
I started feeling into what health truly meant for my life, and what the consequences were when I wasn't well.
I found myself depressed and anxious, as the sharpness of my life was just out of this world.
But the feeling was the healing.
I met my own gaze, with all that had been swept under the rug, and told myself:
I am here now. I am here for you.
The day I received my insulin pump, after years of insulin injections.
One of the best days of my life.
This life-saving device, on my body.
I cannot overlook modern medicine for this gift.
I was called onto an alternative path of medicine, as much of little Ila wanted to be a doctor when she was young.
The natural world called me. I was so fascinated by healing through natural modalities that the Earth provided us.
Raised around the farm and often being in the bush with my dad, I just knew I would take this path.
I started learning about plants, the natural world, and how our societal systems don't always align with these ancient ways of being.
So I started to crave my own medicine. My own life experience carved me.
And I became stronger, and more attuned to my landscapes within.
I felt all of my deep love, pain and humanness, and how deeply I longed to hold others within the vastness of themselves.
So, in the depths of winter 2025, Earth Women was born.
I longed for every being to never feel as disconnected as I did, and the fire burned into me.
To cultivate Earth-valued communities and truly sovereign people, truly sovereign women.
Where health is vital, we are strong, and connected with our deepest sense of knowing and being.
It continues to spiral deeper and deeper, and I follow the threads. But I know Earth Women is carving me and providing so much healing for me and those that encounter her.
To be with women in the vastness of their truth.
This human experience is raw, brutal and absolutely beautiful, so to feel it all is a gift.
I believe we must be seen and acknowledged by ourselves and our community. To be seen is to be loved.
And Earth Women breathes this philosophy.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here, and witnessing a important piece of my story.
If something in my story resonates with you, you're welcome to explore the spaces created through Earth Women.
You deserve to be deeply alive and well.
With all my love, Ila.