Acrylic on canvas

Signed on the back.

Identity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls is multifaceted. Our women and girls walk between two worlds. Within both worlds they have multiple identities and are challenged daily to remain their whole Indigenous self as they negotiate their way through western spaces and ways of being which is often reductionist.

Reductionism forces us to live our lives dividing our identities into smaller and smaller categories fractioning and threatening our true selves, and how we perceive and interact with others. This can result in seeing someone as one fraction of their identity such as being ‘Indigenous’ or ‘a woman’ rather than a collection of their identities such as them also being a ‘mother, daughter, storyteller, doctor, homeowner’. This undermines the strength they can draw on from the connections between other parts of their identity.

Our Indigenous world view, that sees people as holistic and values inclusive and participatory ways of doing is powerful. When we view ourselves as whole, celebrating and embracing the connections between our identities it gives us strength. It is a strength that we bring when we walk in the western world viewing others as whole, seeking to understand their multiple points of view to form and sustain meaningful connections and work together to create better futures.