Mumirimina Country

The invasion and subsequent colonisation of Lutruwita/Tasmania coincides with the absence of the Mumirimina people from this landscape.
This absence is not a coincidence but a consequence.

The founding of Richmond ultimately represents the loss of the Mumirimina people. 

For this work, I did not want to focus on the very dark and violent history present here: The war for this country or the extent of the genocidal regime enacted against our people that has altered our people, culture, and country forever.

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Instead, this work is a reflection on the thousands of years of life and care that this landscape has seen. 
The memory of Mumirimina people remains embedded in this landscape. The abundant country here is part of their legacy. This country continues to hold our people, still we can draw from it and the stories that remain here. 

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A stone tool is made by one person, carried with them on their journeys across country and then left behind where it will be picked up by another or left within the landscape.

Thousands of stone tools have been found across Mumirimina country. Still more are found every year. 
Thousands of journeys, thousands of people, thousands of stories, for thousands of years. These tools are tangible physical reminders of Mumrimina people in this landscape.

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This work features the outlines of real stone tools, each one unique, each one held by Mumirimina country. The marks are made by imprinting the tools into the paper using charcoal and ochre pigments that I have collected on my own journeys across our country.

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If each stone tool represented a bicentenary, this work still could not represent the depth of the Mumarimina story here.