My Body Is Country, My Blood Is Salt Water, 2023
Neon Text on Acrylic
4460mm × 740mm
Adapted from a spoken word performance and video piece, this work asserts bodily sovereignty and a deep, lived connection to saltwater Country. Illuminated in a bold, minimal form, the statement becomes both a poetic provocation and a cultural anchor; a line you feel in your chest before you read it with your eyes.
As a Tasmanian Aboriginal man living on my homelands in Lutruwita, my relationship to Country is not metaphor; it is inheritance, kinship and memory. Tasmanian Aboriginal people share an unbroken connection to the salt water that surrounds our island. These waters have sustained us for countless generations, feeding us, teaching us, shaping our movement, language and lore. That knowledge lives on in our bodies; it is imprinted across bloodlines and carried forward in practice, story, song and dance.
“My Body is Country, My Blood is Salt Water” speaks to that truth with clarity and restraint. The pared-back typography and neon glow hold space for reflection while refusing to dilute the message. It is a declaration of presence: that we are an extension of Country and of salt water, that sovereignty is embodied as much as it is asserted, that the tides themselves keep our time.
Originally commissioned by YIRRAMBOI in 2023, the work continues as a portable beacon, equally at home, in a public space or within a quiet gallery space, inviting viewers to consider how place, body and memory are inseparable for First Nations people.
The simplicity of its form is deliberate: it asks us to look longer, listen closer, and recognise what has always been here.
Please note final size varies with mounting and spacing.
My Body Is Country, My Blood Is Salt Water, 2023
Neon Text on Acrylic
4460mm × 740mm
Adapted from a spoken word performance and video piece, this work asserts bodily sovereignty and a deep, lived connection to saltwater Country. Illuminated in a bold, minimal form, the statement becomes both a poetic provocation and a cultural anchor; a line you feel in your chest before you read it with your eyes.
As a Tasmanian Aboriginal man living on my homelands in Lutruwita, my relationship to Country is not metaphor; it is inheritance, kinship and memory. Tasmanian Aboriginal people share an unbroken connection to the salt water that surrounds our island. These waters have sustained us for countless generations, feeding us, teaching us, shaping our movement, language and lore. That knowledge lives on in our bodies; it is imprinted across bloodlines and carried forward in practice, story, song and dance.
“My Body is Country, My Blood is Salt Water” speaks to that truth with clarity and restraint. The pared-back typography and neon glow hold space for reflection while refusing to dilute the message. It is a declaration of presence: that we are an extension of Country and of salt water, that sovereignty is embodied as much as it is asserted, that the tides themselves keep our time.
Originally commissioned by YIRRAMBOI in 2023, the work continues as a portable beacon, equally at home, in a public space or within a quiet gallery space, inviting viewers to consider how place, body and memory are inseparable for First Nations people.
The simplicity of its form is deliberate: it asks us to look longer, listen closer, and recognise what has always been here.
Please note final size varies with mounting and spacing.
