The Crimson Thread

'The Crimson Thread' is a work in progress which examines the omnipresence and continual honouring of colonial history in Australia to better understand the impacts of colonisation and white privilege

'The Crimson Thread' is a photographic investigation into the omnipresence of our colonial history that attempts to better understand the impacts of colonisation and white privilege on Australian society in a contemporary context. The title of this project is taken from a quote by Henry Parkes, a colonial Australian politician who described Australia’s connection to the British Motherland as, “the crimson thread of kinship, which defined Australia as a bastion of ‘whiteness’ in the Asian region.”

As a way of documenting the ubiquitous presence and honouring of colonial history in our society, the project retraces the Royal Tour made by Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh in 1954. The work questions the continuing existence of the Commonwealth and the Queen as our head of state, the perpetuation of these institutions, and their role in the creation of systemic racism which exists universally today.

This project uses expanded documentary photography to combine images of landscapes, objects and portraits which exemplify the impacts of British colonisation in Australia. It presents history in an amorphous way that allows viewers to decide for themselves where the work sits between fact and fiction and to reflect on the relevance, or irrelevance of these imperial institutions which still exist.