Kokebin (My Mother's Country)

Kokebin Rock is located in the Wheatbelt farming country between Kellerberrin and Quairading in the district where my mother was born. These days the country suffers from that Western Australian cliché of salt damage resulting from the deforestation to produce grain. Nevertheless there are spectacular views to be had from a high vantage out to the limit of sight and the curvature of the Earth. Visually it is a great place to learn about what can happen to light....

I went back to my Mother's Country because I wanted to repay something.

I Co-ordinated Visual Arts classes for several years to a group of Noongar Artists and friends who shared this place. During that time I made this drawing and I thought about what it must have been like for my Mother during her childhood and then later after she married my father and moved to a similar district further North at Morawa. 

I carried the drawing with me and now, many years later, I'm still working on the image, and I'm still thinking about my Mother.