Cache (2022) by Jahkarli Romanis

Recurring images of Pitta Pitta and a portrait of the artist's great-grandmother flick across Google Earth’s representation of Country.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers please be advised that this video contains images of Ancestors that have passed.

'My great-grandmother Dolly was stolen from Country as a young child. Displaced from her family, I reflect on the importance her memories would have played in remembering home and who she is. Like Dolly, I have a similar relationship to memory as a source of connection to Country. These images of Pitta Pitta meld with my memories of place. Deciphering between what is an image and what is a memory becomes more challenging as time goes on. In an increasingly technological world, how I relate to Country relies on these memories, photographs and representations.' says Jahkarli Romanis.

Jahkarli Romanis is a proud Pitta Pitta woman, emerging artist, researcher and emerging curator based on Kulin Land. Raised on Wadawurrung Country, Jahkarli moved to Melbourne to continue her tertiary studies in 2018. After completing an Honours in Photography degree at RMIT in 2020, she has commenced a PhD at Monash in 2021 through the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab. Her work is inextricably intertwined with her identity as a Pitta Pitta woman and explores the complexities of her lived experience and the continuing negative impacts of colonisation in Australia.

Jahkarli has been involved in a number of exhibitions across Victoria and internationally as an artist and curator. Namely, international arts festivals PHOTO, and Austrian based festival Ars Electronica. She is currently a Research Assistant on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Indigenous Discovery grant 'Protocols for Indigenous-led creative practice.' This project investigates how Indigenous Design Charters can address the ongoing misuse of Indigenous Knowledge in professional creative practice.