Art  //  Dharawal

This folio of work began in 2009 when I started to photograph locations of interest within the Royal National Park. It is a work in progress. There is much that intrigues me about this region, not least its proximity to the urban sprawl of Sydney and the fact that the Indigenous way of life here was so rapidly extinguished by colonial settlement. When I explore this place at night with my torches I'm not only looking at what I see, but also for how being in such a remote and darkened place can trigger my imagination.

A number of the Aboriginal rock engraving sites that I have photographed in this area can also be viewed at this link to my TRACES series. The engraving images are an extension to the Dharawal series. 

 In 2015 I began collaborating with Les Bursill OAM, an anthropologist and specialist historian on Dharawal culture to further extend this series.