Bana-gu gali-gal – Born of Tears

This creative work was designed to pay tribute and honour the brave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and woman who stood up and told their stories and relived the horror of their childhoods (Bringing Them Home, 1997). Bana-gu gali-gal re−presents the trauma of child removal associated with assimilation. The image speaks to the unspeakable: the anguish of having a child forcibly removed from a parent; the terror of the ‘disappeared’ child; the grief of loss and being lost; the loss of love; the profound loss of connection.