Around and Within

Focussing on individual bodily connections to Country, an intimate trio of three black velvet and bull kelp vulvas titled Vulval Shields speaks to the presence of gendered Aboriginal histories. The works seek to disrupt the sexually loaded language of the phrase ‘black velvet,’ a derogatory, sexualised descriptor of Aboriginal women by white, colonialist men. Using the sensuous material of black velvet, both in its black and bleached forms, acts against this form of debasement as I actively claim my Aboriginal womanhood.