“CROSSING COUNTRIES”

Acrylic on flat canvas 

60cm x 81cm 

Kashael. B

$650

In lore traditionally I am from no where! That doesn’t mean I am of no where. It just means that’s without elder or custodian permission I am unable to pass on their stories of country. My ancestors have not yet let me down, the colony has. 

Lore was established before law and we lived beautifully. We still do but are subject to the effects of the stolen generation, lands, history and wealth. How are we, the misplaced, supposed to identify with tribes that don’t acknowledge us as we are: “stolen” how are we to feel confident in our aboriginality when it is being washed by White man. This piece is for my misplaced, with connections to many lands without being subject to a particular tribe. 

This is my own song line, this is my family, I am Kashael David Bigby and this is my story. You will see the emergence of both of my mother countries in this piece. How my bloodlines have tracked each other and created my story. My heart, my soul, my whakapapa to the stolen children I carry your stories and I hear you through the breeze, I see you in the tides and I feel you on this land. Crossing Countries is dedicated to our shared resilience.

The panels reflect the colour story of the environments in which I belong too. Watering holes all over the both countries interconnecting between New Zealand and Australia to symbolise places of respect in which my families intertwine (usually always aunties houses). The Tasman sea through the middle being the direction in which my family paths have taken to connect. This dream is in the witching hour. It’s 3am with our beautiful fluorescent moon casted over, this is when the glorious sun shows its first glimmers in Aotearoa at 5am. I always feel a little out of sorts with sleep hygiene and my body clock. It may be because my souls belongs to different times.