Holli McEntegart is the Founder and Director of the Inhabit Project, she is an Artist and Full Spectrum Doula based in Tamaki Makaurau. You can read more about her creative projects here www.hollimcentegart.com and dive into her Doula work here www.deararlo.co.nz  

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Holli is an artist, a doula, and an island named Mother to two spirited souls aged 1 and 4. She is passionate about birth and postpartum care, has been a Full Spectrum Doula since 2018 and is a Certified Lactation Counselor. She is honored to support folks as they traverse the wild landscape of new parenthood and believes all birthing bodies, and spirits, should be supported, nurtured and truly validated throughout the postpartum experience.

 

Holli lived and worked as an artist and doula in New York and Los Angeles for six years. She holds a Masters of Art and Design and has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Her work in Motherhood is an extension of her art practice, with a focus on re-centering and healing lived experiences. She approaches her making with a social practice framework and a desire to unpack the complexities of who and what we value as a society, so we may explore systems of change.

 

Holli’s move back to Aotearoa in 2020 amid the global pandemic, opened her eyes to the inequities within our healthcare system. In particular, there is a horrific lack of maternity and postpartum care, support or funding available to birthing families, having a direct effect on postpartum mental health as well as the general health and wellbeing of our whānau and communities.

 

Guided herself by Celtic and Pākehā traditions, Holli wishes to expand access to postpartum health resources that support our communities, whilst centering conversations about how traditional healing practices are carried with us or passed down as oral history. How are patterns of care surviving colonization and migration? How can we better learn from them?