colonial waistcoat (2026)

paperbark cotton thread calico felted Marino wool and Eastern Suburbs Banksia wildflowers
85 x 84 x 4cm

Colonial Waistcoat is a re-imagined object from the Mitchell Library: a vest which belonged to Captain Cook and was embroidered by his wife. It is replicated in local plants: paperbark (harvested from a tree in my back garden) and pressed wildflowers from the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Shrub, the plant community that dominated the Sydney Basin prior to Cook’s arrival.  The vest is stitched piece by piece onto a calico pattern of a replica of the original; and is further supported by a hand felted merino wool chassis. Colonial Waistcoat is an object made in the spirit of reparation, reimagining a colonisation that instead of dominance, embraced and respected indigenous ecology and culture

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