‘Rise 3’ is a part of the series ’Still I Rise’ the through-line for these works being ‘After the Rain’. Considering rain as an allusion to adversity, I reflected on what it is that pushes First Nations people to persevere through the consistent set-backs that face our people. I think it is those moments of joy and celebration, much like the exhilaration after the storm breaks, that are central to this resilience.

This image is of my Grandfather Charles and my Grandmother Eileen on their wedding day. Their joy and excitement is palpable. These ‘glimmers’ are recurrent and important parts of our stories and how we should be represented.

It is extraordinary to consider their union was the year of the ‘Australian Marriage Act 1961’ which dismantled any state Aboriginal protector official’s control or say over who an Indigenous person could or could not marry.

Their partnership was definitely something that allowed Pop to persevere, and I wanted to celebrate that as well as the love that imbued their lives. The home and family was the space that you could retreat to, in order to recharge and go on another day.

From my Grandmother Eileen:

Wedding: 23rd September 1961 St. John’s Lutheran Church, Malvern South Australia

“Returning from a working holiday in N.Z. I was standing on the ship’s deck and said a little prayer; ‘Here I am Lord, 21 years old and ready to start an adult life, to serve, however that might be.’

There came this strange sound. Was it a wave breaking on the ship? Was it God acknowledging my prayer?

Back home and on the first Saturday out at a soccer function. From across the room I saw this man arrive. He seemed to float. Little did I know I would spend the next 39 years with him.”