Passage to Seeding Hope; Canola Field, Wheat and Murnong Daisy with Carriage by Lea Rose

Photographic Print

Framed - 92cm x 62cm

Archival pigment print on 310gsm 100% cotton rag photographic paper. Imperial carriage, murnong, wheat and canola field. Photographed on location, Sea Lake, Victoria, Australia.

From the artist: I seek to inspire a sense of reverence for the beauty and resilience of the natural world and invite the viewer to engage with the importance of addressing intertwined ecological and cultural injustices. Featured in this work is the critically threatened Murnong Yam Daisy, traditionally a staple food source for First Nations Peoples. The Murnong has been severely affected by consequences of intensive colonial agricultural methods and loss of traditional land management practices by First Nations Peoples due to colonial occupation. The photographic work, depicts the once thriving Murnong emerging from a clump of wheat within a fabricated imperial steel vessel, set against the backdrop of canola fields located on the fringe of Lake Tyrrell (Direl), Victoria. The imperial vessel symbolises the imposition of foreign agricultural practices that disrupt traditional ecological balances. The imagery poignantly illustrates the Murnong’s precarious existence amid landscapes altered by colonial systems. My works conceptualise and evaluate colonial exploitation and emphasises the need for restorative ecological practices, embracing Indigenous knowledge, truth telling and critiquing patriarchal structures of colonial systems that perpetuate environmental and cultural degradation.

About the artist: learose.com.au/