2026 - Time to Burn | Holmes a Court Gallery
I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Nyoongar people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work. ‘Reading Country – Balga’ was inspired by Zac Webb’s storytelling of cowara and the fire magic of balga, a significant Wadandi Songline shared during a recent workshop. I acknowledge their deep and continuing connection to Country and am grateful for the opportunity to learn from their cultural knowledge.
The balga (Xanthorrhoea preissii, grass tree) holds deep cultural significance as a source of fire. Each banner depicts a stage in the balga flower spike’s growth—from emergence, to star-like flowering, to the hardened spike bearing beak-shaped seedpods that signal readiness for fire, when Wadandi people traditionally burn patches of Country using drip-torches made from dry balga skirt leaves, creating a slow, low heat ground fire.
Rendered as detailed ink drawings on rice paper infused with cold wax for preservation, the banners read as both observation and instruction. Reading Country: Balga honours fire as knowledge, timing, and care—demonstrating how Country signals when to act, and when to wait.