Home Island – Cocos Island Dreaming is a multidisciplinary installation led by an observational film work that explores the cultural, social, and emotional ties between Cocos (Keeling) Islands and rural Wheatbelt Western Australia. Premiering at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in 2026, the project foregrounds moving image as its central anchor, with printmaking and sound forming a layered, immersive environment around it.
The film adopts a quiet, observational approach, contrasting everyday life, landscapes, and rhythms of island culture with those of regional Western Australia, particularly Katanning. Through extended moments of looking and listening, it reveals how Cocos Malay communities operate as a living bridge between these two places—maintaining cultural practices, kinship, and memory across distance and displacement.
Surrounding the film are experimental print works, including prints on sheepskin that reference the labour histories of Cocos Malays employed in Katanning's meat industry. These tactile surfaces function as material traces of migration and resilience, embedding history directly into the installation. A composed soundscape drawn from field recordings, interviews, and musical elements further connects the visual components, echoing both coastal and inland environments.
Together, these elements form a multi sensory reflection on intergenerational memory, post-colonial identity, and cultural survival. Home Island – Cocos Island Dreaming offers audiences an embodied encounter with underrepresented histories, honouring the communities that sustain connection between island homelands and the Australian Wheatbelt.
