In a conversation with NITV Radio, Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis explained that her creation stems from the story of her great grandmother, Dolly Creed, who was stolen from Pitta Pitta Country as a child and never returned home.
‘This work is a comment on the reductionistic nature of ethnographic photography. The portrait in the video is of my great-grandmother Dolly Creed, made in 1938 by Norman Tindale. She was 22 years of age, “Ms Romanis said.
“My work attempts to submerse Dolly back into Country, whilst subverting the colonial gaze forced on her by Tindale and his team of “researchers”. Acknowledging that whilst the archive is problematic, it allows Aboriginal people to access information about their families and history. Without Tindale's work, I wouldn't know who I am.’”
