(Dis)connected to Country

Australia has a complex history tainted with colonialism, the mass genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and forced assimilation into the settler colony. The many products of colonialism are still prevalent and thriving today.

(Dis)connected to Country maps the intersections of place, identity, and family, and the way that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have inextricable connection to the land, as Country and self are intertwined and inseparable. Working with oral histories, the project reflects on the traumatic history of Australia with specific focus on Pitta Pitta Country and the removal of Romanis’ great-grandmother in the early 1900s during the Stolen Generations.

This show aims to disrupt and subvert colonial approaches to image-making and mapping systems, highlighting the omission of significant Indigenous Knowledges. The work critically analyses archive, representation, and new technology, and grapples with the idea that photographs have their own agency. (Dis)connected to Country is a project of revival, healing and mapping back to Pitta Pitta Country.