Description
Virginia KEFTS
New South Wales
Muruwari Granddaughter
2023
eucalyptus bark, raffia, eco-dyed silk, quandong seeds, emu feathers
60 x 50cm
I tread softly on the Country of my grandmother’s birth. Her father was born in the brown earth of the muruwari birthing tree. A tree that knows us. Generations were born here and walked and thrived; a place of remembering. I turn in a slow circle, my own kids in tow. I sit at the meeting place of the 5 tribes. The ancient guruwa (gum trees) sing and dance by the mighty Barwon River. I watch the lines drawn in Country that circle me and remember the lines on my grandmother’s hands, as my own hands work the woven fibres. The Elders in the circle chatter as the river birds ready for evening and the guruwa leaves under me have pressed, and imprinted on my bare legs. Muruwari Granddaughter, is a deeply personal work that incorporates weaving, carving, drawing, and Native plant printmaking. The contemporary landscape draws on ancient Aboriginal traditions of painting on bark but rethinks the practice in new ways that acknowledge my cultural connectedness to land and sky, home and family.
