00:02I started collecting maybe five at five or six years of age. It was a real love affinity
00:08with the kind of iconography. And I still go back even to this day and think about that
00:13very innocent childhood perspective of the love I had for people and culture. So it's
00:2040 years of collecting.
00:21And what are some of the items that you have and how have you repurposed them to really
00:27challenge ideas of colonisation?
00:30We're talking about things like plates, cups, tea towels, ranges through so much different
00:36ephemera which was used and utilised in the sale of culture as commodification, I guess
00:41you could say. But the collection, I guess, grew so large that it moved from my personal
00:47collection in my house to my studio and started to inform my practice a lot more. So it was
00:52never really intended, you know, as a child that I would have an art career or be utilising
00:57these objects, you know, in the future as part of my work. But it made its natural progression
01:02and it really is a medium that I feel so comfortable with. And there's really important stories that
01:07can be told through using these objects.
01:10You've been collecting them for over 40 years, but you now have got a call out to the Australian
01:16public to try and get them out of circulation. Tell us about that. What are you asking?
01:21Well, it's an amazing thing that was proposed through the Museum of Contemporary Art. I've
01:26never had a call out or an appeal, but as the progression and knowledge of me as an artist
01:31has grown through the community, I often have daily messages or something, people saying,
01:38oh, we've just gone through our grandparents' garage and found these objects that we think
01:43you will love. So the want and need for people to transfer these objects is pretty huge and
01:48we're kind of taking that on board and have an opportunity to drop things off at a special
01:54location here at the MCA. So maybe be used in a future work.
01:59And conversations around this kind of memorabilia and the racism associated with them could maybe
02:05cause some white Australians to feel uncomfortable. But why is it important to have these conversations?
02:12Well, I think just not only white Australians, Aboriginal people find this very confronting
02:17and difficult as well. These objects are important artifacts of a different time in a different
02:25era and a way of associating an attachment to who we are as people. So it does spark really
02:34interesting conversation, but conversation which is much needed. And I think we can have these
02:38conversations together, understand that background and move forward in a really kind of sensitive
02:43and powerful way.
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