‘We die – does it matter when’ 2024 continues my personal response to the Halloran collection (HC). Growing up in Vincentia, like my mother before me, I feel a deep sense of belonging shared with Aboriginal friends and mentors. A significant mentor, Uncle Laddie, gifted me the pipeclay featured. This work continues to pay tribute to Laddie’s lifelong work as a cross-cultural teacher and activist based at JBMM.

This parchment was soaked c.12 years ago in the billabong near my childhood home. It is a familial place frequented by my mother’s family. I feel the presence of my Ancestral spirits here. My grandparents, Keith and Gloria Sheehy purchased land from Warren Halloran in c.1955 across from the creek that feeds this billabong. The billabong is located at the port for the original Wool Road, which I now live on. This clock from the HC signifies Warren’s ownership and sale of the land now called Vincentia. The clock and Warren’s face merge with the male figurehead linking to this exploitation of land via sea. The instruments of nautical navigation that measure time in the HC symbolise the colonisation of Jervis Bay.

Colonisation’s impact over time is represented by the Astrolabe crew surveying on Hole in the Wall (now collapsed) and the procession of bullocks carrying bales down The Wool Road (now a constant stream of traffic). Aboriginal figures feature from the HC to symbolise their unbroken connection to Jervis Bay land and sea, and continual presence as traditional custodians. The reference to time from a sailor’s perspective ‘A day less or more/At sea or ashore/We die – does it matter when’ is ironically an extract from a poem called ‘The Revenge’. The Aboriginal Ancestor depicted drinking from a stream in the HC is looking into the transit telescope becoming the star.