Contemporary Australian Artist

'Songlines - Journeys Through Country' ANU, Canberra, ACT 2005 & Gippsland Regional Gallery, Sale, VIC, 2004.

My work, entitled Songlines, deals with historic and contemporary events and issues affecting Aboriginal people from the East Gippsland region. I explore ways in which people have survived and adapted to displacement from their traditional Country, and despite attempts at silencing their Aboriginality, have remained connected through kinship ties centred around new sites such as Lake Tyers. My focus is on women and their continuing role as keepers of the stories, traditionally passed on as they journeyed through Country - those storylines so critical to survival.

Until relatively recently the whitewashing of history erased, or made invisible black history. More was stolen than children; it was the silencing of culture for generations that has had the most enduring effect. The enforced removal of people to missions and reserves, or more accurately depots for collective assimilation, meant the silencing of language, of ceremony and of culture. For others, denial of their Aboriginality was a strategy for survival, a means of protecting their children from discrimination and from being stolen.

Sales Enquiries

Name

your name

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

your email address

Subject

2005 artwork purchase

Message

please name the artwork you are interested in, plus any additional requests