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Ganalay, the bread of life (2025) confronts colonial histories of displacement, environmental destruction and the erasure of First Nations food systems. Cotton, an introduced monocultural crop on Gamilaroi Country, is tied to Eurocentric agricultural practices, restricted access to resources and the loss of native bush foods and grasslands.
The work is grounded in the artist’s family history. The artist’s grandfather and his siblings worked as cotton chippers, tasked with removing weeds using a hoe, unknowingly cutting out the very native bush foods their Gamilaroi ancestors had traditionally used for breadmaking. The work looks back to the impacts of colonial agriculture while looking forward to renewed practices of care, recognition and sustenance on Country.
