A grant from the Australia Council to work in the Kimberley was the original reason behind the Journey project. But in the planning stage I decided that on the way to the Kimberley I would travel again through the Lake Eyre and Simpson Desert regions. This decision shaped the resulting Journey exhibition so that it included all three areas.

 

The distance from Melbourne to Broome is over 4000 km. On arriving in the Kimberley region I travelled north along the rough, dusty road that stretches through Aboriginal land to the missions at Beagle Bay and Lombardina and on to the red cliffs of Cape Leveque at the tip of Dampierland Peninsula. Most of the journey is through pindan (an Aboriginal word for wild scrubby country). The Dampierland Peninsula is the traditional land of the Nyul-Nyul and the Bardi people, yet the influence of the missions established in the late 1800s is clear.

 

The threads of this history – interwoven with my growing knowledge of the land – formed the fabric of my work. My aim was to create a group of assemblages that would be read as a journey through time, as well as reflecting the character of a fascinating area of the Kimberley that has been irrevocably altered by European contact.

 

The Journey series comprised 53 works featuring boxes, sculptures and assemblages.