Historical information

Bonnie Fagan's County is Wadawurrung. Most of her early learning about her Aboriginality came from the father.

Physical description

Aboriginal dot painting telling the artist's learning journey. Bonnie Fagan wrote of this work: "Ochres reflect my connection with the land of my traditional Wadawurrung Country. Yellow ochre forms the background and white ochre defines my pathway, showing where I have traveled from my past and where I am heading in my future. I use reddish ochres for the larger dots along my pathway to show my footprint and for the smaller dots that ripple outwards to show how I've had some influence, either good or bad. The white lines show my pathway with an entry point from my past marking the start of my journey, a middle part showing were my life will continue. Through the middle part, my teenage years, the pathway is very windy. These years were sometime quite difficult and I struggled. The two circle areas symbolize two chapters in my life, first as a child and then as an adult, when I've felt mostly positive and safe. They are periods when I've been very open to learning, gathering knowledge from people and experiences that I trusted, and the circles within the circles symbolize the layers of support, of experience, of connection and of learning that I experienced. Strong visual symbols at the base of the painting under the first circle area represent the key figures in my learning through my childhood: my father (represented by the traditional symbol, of a man with a spear) and my mothers with me as a small child, The spirit of my paternal grandmother, my Nan, hovers above my childhood circle and near the pathway through to my teenage years, showing the strength of her influence and how she was always there guiding me." (Robyn Brandenburg and Jacqueline Z, Wilson [Eds] Pedagogies for the Future: Leading Quality Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Sense Publishers, The Netherlands, 2013, pp40-41)