The Ripple Effect
When I walk across the dry river bed, climb a shelf of warm, red rock, float in the azure blue of a Kimberley ocean I am reminded of my why.
I am reminded of a people that stood here before me, and I always pause to wander over the stories that I have heard. These are stories of grief and loss that have left a resounding echo across this country and deep within the soul of its people.
For many years this ancient land has been the inspiration for the work that I create. I now feel the need to pause within my artistic journey to give a nod of recognition to the traditional owners of the country that has been so generous to me, this is the landscape of the people whose connection to country is symbiotic to their very being.
The connection of a mother to her child and the child to the mother is the strongest bond of humanity. When this bond is broken be it through separation, disconnection, death, the repercussions will be felt though out the child’s life and the ripple effect has the potential to touch the generations to follow.
The last indigenous children to be taken forcibly from their families was in 1970.
As you stand before this work today I ask that you take the time to reflect on your own child, your mother, father, brothers, sisters.…and one….. without the other.
With thanks to conversations held with Tania Bin Bakar and her team, Stolen Generation, Broome, WA.
Suzy French
