During my recent trip to the Byron Bay area, I respectfully pilgrimaged to the sacred Aboriginal women’s site of Ti Tree lake. I cautiously entered the ‘dark’ water and gradually let myself float, then sink beneath its surface. Inside the lake, with eyes open, I marvelled at how my entire body was enveloped in ‘red’ water, like I was back inside the womb – the great ocean where all of our lives begin. Though it was a day of silence for me, and deep meditation, I introduced myself to the ancestors and spirits of this sacred lake, knowing that it had been a birthing site for indigenous women (because of the water’s naturally antiseptic properties). I prayed to them for a new beginning and to surrender, into these healing waters, my own, my mother’s and my own ancestors’ ‘disempowered’ relationship with womanhood – a product of having lived in a staunchly patriarchal culture. With this forgiveness ritual, I felt a subtle, yet very real reclamation of my own power as a woman. I prayed that all women caught in the binds of victimisation could experience a similar release when they were ready to let go and thrive beyond their “woman wounds”. I discovered that day that sacred women’s sites offer spaces for deep healing.