In 2023 I was highly motivated to support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In fact not much else felt worth doing. Creating pretty landscapes was not in my frame. I just needed to find a way to have my own voice of support heard and Seen.

I have never been particularly fond of artwork that contained type or text. With some exceptions, of course but I was particularly uncomfortable when the type drew attention to itself but was illegible. This felt like intentional obfuscation, which I am not a fan of. But in figuring out how to express my thoughts about the Voice I decided to use text, my own words and quite a few of them as it turned out.

I decided to work on fabric so the work could be folded up and put away if the Voice did not get up or metaphorically raised as a flag if successful.

I chose to approach the work as a batik. I had never created a batik prior to this project but with help of a weekend workshop taught by artist Chris Ng at our local ARI, Watch This Space, I began the process of experimentation.  I taught myself how to write with a tjanting. And how to dye the fabric using a rusting process rather than traditional dyes.

The final work is quite large. The text is legible, something I was not sure of until I boiled out the wax, the final step in the whole process. But I found, to my own surprise,  that I was not too stressed about wether the text was in fact legible. The act of writing my words, embedding them in the work was sufficient. Maybe it’s always like that for artists who use text? It’s there for them not the viewer. And I realised I could have the text alongside the wok in a statement

The work was exhibited in the annual Advocate Art Award at Araluen, our regional gallery. It was purchased by Jen Wallace, an Aboriginal woman from Sutherland Shire and now hangs in her office at the NGO called Children’s Ground, here in Mparntwe.
I feel so very honoured and heard!
She has kindly given me permission to put the photo of she and I on this website.

The loss of the campaign was a profound blow. I still shake my head and breathe deeply as I ponder what the hell do we do now?

What can I make from this silence?