Memoryscoping the Bunurong Coast: A project-based PhD speculating on the intimate and complex histories of a personally significant place
This interactive historical map ‘Reminiscing on the family weekender’ offers a snapshot of the intricacies, complexities, reassurances, and discomforts that accompany my affinity for my family’s property ‘Wreck Beach Farm’ and its surrounds. It tries to understand and articulate the loss I felt when the property was sold and also comprehend the nostalgia I still hold for that place.
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Overlooking green paddocks and a Manna Gum laneway my snug weekender sometimes smells like sausage fat but always of black coffee.
Continue readingReflecting on my first visit to the Public Records Office of Victoria.
Continue readingThis work was developed on the unceded lands and waterways of the Boon wurrung and Woi Wurrung language groups of the Kulin Nations. Much of the fieldwork, including visitation, writing and documentation, was undertaken on the lands of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung people.
The Bunurong/Boonwurrung people are the first storytellers of these lands. Their sovereignty was never ceded. This is, and always will be Aboriginal Land.
I respectfully acknowledge the Ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging.
In terms of my position as a visitor on those lands, I state my lineage and purpose. I am Rees Quilford. I am a fourth-generation settler of Welsh-Irish descent. I am a writer, communications professional and a PhD candidate with RMIT University.
I was born and currently live on Bunurong/Boonwurrung land. I try to tread lightly, understand my place and listen to what it’s telling me.