Over the years, artist Jarra Karalinar Steel has come to love the city of Paris.
A decade ago, while there on a university trip, she found herself sitting on a bridge with a dream to return and create art.
A year later she was living there.
"I drew every day, and I focused on art, and I was like 'This is what I want, this is where I want to be,'" Steel said.
Now, the Boonwurrung, Wemba Wemba and Trawlwoolway woman is back in the city of lights with the intention and freedom to focus on her craft.
Influences from on Country and Blak Futurism
A multidisciplinary artist, Steel is currently undertaking the Galang residency at the Cité internationale des arts, where she says she has the space to think, create and explore.
In her own practice, Steel says she looks to the full spectrum of colour, a nod to her upbringing on Country in regional Victoria.
“I’m pretty sure my ancestors would be embracing all the bold colours because that reflects our Country, especially where I’m from,” she told NITV.
“I draw on a lot of nature, like the pig face flowers are this poppy bright pink … I think there’s a pop element to my work and I look into a lot of Indigenous Futurism.
"I just like to play."
'The Watchful Ones' by Jarra Steel, a commission from the Hero Apartment Building in Melbourne. Credit: Peter Berzanskis Credit: @Peter Berzanskis
In a piece for Lit Hub, Chelsea Vowel says Dillon was describing a movement in the arts, literature, games and other media which expresses Indigenous perspectives on the past, present and future.
Steel applies this concept to her own thinking of Blak futures.
Steel's game The Adventures of Dolly explores what Melbourne would look like if First Nations culture was respected. Source: Supplied
The story-driven game imagines a Melbourne where Aboriginal cultures and language are respected.
“It’s basically envisioning us in a future and our culture being a part of that,” Steel said.
“Blak Futurism is a way to see a better future for us and a future where we’re belonging to where we’re originally from too. Taking up space, I think that’s what it is.”
'I just needed space'
The chance to live and work in Paris offers a break from the familiar, says Steel.
“It’s always been what I wanted to do,” Steel said.
“I just needed space away from the expectations of family and everybody to just figure it out.
“I have a lot of responsibilities. My mum’s a senior Elder back home, there’s ... a lot young people who look to me and I mentor."
She says it's not an uncommon experience for mob to find breathing space overseas.
“A lot of our community, when they come overseas, they get space to just exist and be free to figure it out.
"And then they’re like 'Oh, this is what I want to do.'"
At the Cité internationale des arts, Steel is among artists from all over the world, including fellow Indigenous artists from home, Vincent Namatjira and Grace Lillian Lee.
Beyond the opportunity the residency provides for enormous personal and artistic growth, Steel sees it as a chance to pass that along to mob back home.
"I just don’t want to see all that immense talent and strength just disappear with them, so they’ve got to keep going," Steel said.
"We’re here to hopefully carve the path for them a little bit."
No shame in dreaming big
Steel is making the most of her time on the other side of the world.
Between contemplation, walks along the Seine and finding the perfect pastry, she has also held a workshop at the Tate Modern in London which was attended by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Steel said these three months in Paris is proof to the younger generation, and herself, that it’s not shameful to dream big.
“How can I tell them to not live with shame and ... wanting to live and have big dreams if I’m still having imposter syndrome.
"Why am I shame to be myself?”
“Being here gives me that freedom to just explore how I want to be in the world as an artist.
I want to be able to dream big and say I’m dreaming big without feeling shame around it.
“I spent way too long trying to figure it out, but also building so much foundation to get here so it’s a journey.
"It’s all a journey.”
