Living in the West Kimberley for over a decade, Katie Breckon's drawings are a fragmentary journey through her story as a non-indigenous arts worker in Booroola (Derby) on Nyikina Country. Far from a static archive her work renders memory as a process of movement.

Natural markers help establish one’s location in the bush. They act as distance markers, as cues to tell us how much further we have to travel and how close we are to home.

One such marker is a narrow passageway where the Gibb River Road cuts through the ancient limestone walls of the Napier Range. Past this point, the landscape dramatically transforms into hill country - small, rounded forms that become more dynamic as the red dirt road winds further inland.

The passageway, or gap in the Napier Range, is man-made. It was blown open in the 1960s to facilitate a new road connecting pastoral stations with service towns like Derby, a colonial imprint shaping the economic contours of the region. Colloquially known as Queen Victoria's Head, not only does the exploded gap separate the ancient cliffs, but a rocky peak eerily resembling the late monarch's profile, looms over the road, her silhouette visible for miles upon approach.

Today Queen Victoria’s Head overshadows the fact the Napier Range is the border between Bunuba and Ngarinyin language groups. This place is a significant crossing between two distinct Countries, marking Indigenous land ownership and the corresponding geographical shift from flat savannah to hills.

Advancements challenging the false naming of places in the Kimberley have seen some changes to the official naming of sites along the Gibb River Road. The Napier Ranges is now the gateway to the Wunaamin Miliwundi Conservation Park. A hybrid name, the joining of Wunaamin (Ngarinyin) and Miliwundi (Bunuba) respectfully acknowledging the shared border for the neighbouring native title groups. However the Napier Range itself has yet to be renamed.

In these drawings, the artist has intentionally narrowed her focus to exclude the rocky profile of Queen Victoria, instead focusing on the act of passing through. For the artist, the significance of moving through the limestone range from one territory into another was an internalised acknowledgement of crossing in or out of Bunuba and Wilinggin Countries. Wilinggin belongs to Ngarinyin people with whom Katie worked for nearly a decade. Depending on the direction of travel, passing through the ranges meant the beginning of a long journey out and beyond, or the last stretch of road home.

Incised paint on copper and aluminium substrate
Panels 95 x 120 cm
2023