Explore the embroidery

Documents (detail) Photo: George Serras

A cloud made of pieces of paper trailing across the sky was one of the first elements Sharon Peoples developed for her design. The papers represent documents, such as decrees, laws, land titles and propaganda.

Arising as the landscape collapses, they symbolise legal and political structures, including Federation. In places, the papers approach the ground and become intertwined with the crimson thread, suggesting how legislation shapes land and people.

Trees and cockatoo (detail) Photo: George Serras

The embroiderers drew on the environment around them to translate Sharon's design to the stitched linen. They modelled trees on those outside their windows and added four cockatoos, named after a folk-singing group and the youngest member of the guild to work on the embroidery.

'When we'd finished the big trees in the scenes, we thought it would be fun to add some white cockatoos. The ones in panel two have names — Peter, Paul, Mary and Anna. If you look closely you can see their sulphur crests.'
Margaret Thompson, embroiderer

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