Ranch Pressing

Collective Mothering ︎︎︎ Amber Smith (Ed.) with Amelia Wallin, Sarah Jones, Briony Galligan + Abbra Kotlarczyk, Emma Michaelis, Hayley Millar Baker, Lillian O’Neil, Pauline Rotsaert and Penne Thornton

Collective Mothering
Ed. Amber Smith with Amelia Wallin, Sarah Jones, Briony Galligan + Abbra Kotlarczyk, Emma Michaelis, Hayley Millar Baker, Lillian O’Neil, Pauline Rotsaert and Penne Thornton


Saddle stitched, risograph publication printed + bound by Ranch Pressing (AU) with original hand drawn covers by Otto Opus Don-Smith.

53 pages

21 x 14cms

Edition of 40

ISBN 978-1-7636302-2-2

October 2025

AU$45 + postage. Please contact Rach Pressing or Platform Arts to order your editioned copy.

In a time marked by ecological crisis, climate change, global conflict, and the instability of late-stage capitalism, matrilineal and maternal models of care offer vital, alternative ways of imagining continuity, resilience, and collective well-being. They provide a blueprint for rethinking relationships—not only between people, but also with the environment and future generations. They also propose systems and ways of being that sit outside of capitalist, consumerist, and Western models of thinking. Collective Mothering discusses these ideas, proposing potential models for connecting communities by creating sites for dialogue, companionship, sharing, and ultimately collective care...

...Artists remind us that the maternal is not only domestic — it is political, aesthetic, embodied, and insurgent. As Audre Lorde writes, ‘Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.’ [6] This kind of care work, especially for those who mother in isolation or at the margins, is an act of resistance. To mother is to be in a state of becoming — constantly. This collection embraces that flux.

                            - Amber Smith, 2025.



[6] Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light: Essays (Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1988), epilogue.