Radical Futures: Gathering Ground 2026

Koort Miya (a heart a home)

I dream of a place that's safe and warm.

As I work with this piece, I sit and contemplate. Creativity amongst change. Control amongst despair. Resilience amongst tragedy. Love amongst loneliness and heartbreak. Openness amongst shame. Quietly I tend to my heart and home, unsure how to call in connection but light a beacon of humanness and hope for those seeking.

come gather round the fire and tell tales of your heart

As my hands work, visions weave of tall ships sailing, stealing gathering grounds and severing connections. Through family resilience, survival and adaptation I am blessed to wander this Earth.

bathe in the protection of the light and warmth

In Noongar waangkaniny (talking), a language lost to my father and hidden by my grandparents, kaarlak/karlup means ‘campfire’ and it also can refer to ‘home’, or sometimes ‘heart country’. Something I feel disconnected from. Generational trauma in my shadow; fresh tragedy and trauma in my wake, from the tragic and sad death of my father to personally living with family domestic violence, the heart and the home feeling lost.

stoke the fire but attention mustn't be lost lest sparks grow wild and willing to take all in its path

I once heard storyteller Josh Schrei say ‘Tending to the hearth is activism.’ something I felt strike me as I struggled to wake each morning. I felt stirring a willingness to survive. Daily I woke to tend to my heart, not without boundaries. for my children I tended to our (heart)h, our home. Hard edges began to soften. Slowly I open doors for others to sit round the fire.

let dancing flames mesmerise your being and spark your dreams

Every thread I pull from this canvas wall of fire removes from me a thread of power over me and reminds me of the passion inside that drives me to keep the fire lit and make Karlup - home and heart country, and recognise the fires lit by others that I can sit by in trust and love.

as you get grounded while flames rise, feel your heart settle as it holds home. you can take a breath here