Melbourne-born Treahna Hamm was disconnected from her Yorta Yorta family in early infancy but grew up in her ancestral land Dhungala, upland from Echuca. Returning in 2001 to trace her connection to her country, she undertook a coil-weaving workshop and didjirri (deep listening) with female elders. Her zinc breastplates reference those used by colonisers to label, reward and pacify their colonised subjects, but also subvert them – the intricate curvilinear motifs incised on the breastplate express the resilience of her people’s culture.
