Strength - The power to resist force

LANA LESLIE, GOMEROI| I Am Country, Country Is Me

This painting is a self-portrait of spirit rather than likeness. I am represented as a figure made of bark, lying within a field of small and large flowers. The flowers are all connected to one another and to me, showing the deep and enduring strength of connection between Country, family, and self. Nothing stands alone.

 

The flowers are linked by visible lines and pathways, representing the connections that move through life: relationships, kinship, memory, loss, and care. Some connections are close and immediate, others stretch further across the surface of the work, reflecting how life is made up of many layers of connection that continue even when people are gone. These lines show that strength does not exist in isolation, it is built through connection and carried collectively.

Colour moves through the flowers as a language of life. The variation in colour represents the different experiences that shape us: love, grief, joy, hardship, growth, and survival. Brighter colours speak to moments of warmth, care, and connection, while deeper tones hold grief, loss, and struggle. Together, the colours show that life is complex and layered, and that strength comes from holding all of it at once.

 

The bark that forms my body was collected from Gunnedah Hill at Coonabarabran on Gomeroi Country. My father grew up on Gunnedah Hill. Although I was not born there, my spirit was formed there. My mother told me I was conceived on Gunnedah Hill, and that knowledge anchors me. My identity as a Gomeroi person is strong, living, and unbroken, carried through my body, memory, and spirit.

 

I travelled to Coonabarabran in 2025 to collect leaves for a smoking ceremony and bark from Gunnedah Hill, connected to cultural practice, care, and responsibility to my father. While I was there, that night, my father passed away unexpectedly. Six months later, my brother passed away. These losses were immense and continue to shape my days. Grief is constant and unresolved.

 

My strength comes from many places. It comes from those who came before me, my ancestors and old people, whose lives, knowledge, and survival made my own possible. It comes from Country itself, which continues to hold and guide me. I draw strength from my family, from my husband, my friends, my dogs, and my home. These relationships, human and non-human, past and present, are part of my continuance. They ground me and carry me forward, allowing me to live from one day to the next, as best as I can.

 

The figure rests within the field of flowers not in defeat, but in strength, endurance, and continuance. It speaks to the work of staying, of holding ground, breathing, and moving forward even when everything feels fragile. As I go forward through life, and eventually into the spirit world, my connection to Country remains. Country holds me in all stages of life, past, present, and future, and that connection does not end.

 

 

This work holds deep sorrow, but it stands firmly in strength. It is about living with profound loss while remaining connected to Gomeroi Country, and about remembering my identity and power, supported by those who came before me and those who walk beside me. I am Country, and Country is me.