Being able to place ourselves within a group and attach that group to a specific location is an important facet of understanding our identity.  It helps us know who we are, where we come from and what we are doing here - where ever 'here' is.

Example: My parents were first generation Americans of Irish (maternal) and Italian (paternal) migrants who grew up reciting a litany of 'close family' members resident in another country. If a new name was not reported or an old name forgotten, those people didn't exist, at least to the American branch.  I recall, as a child, trying to sort out my relationship to an assortment of people I'd never met yet who were equal recipients of my Nanna's love. Then, as a migrant myself, I witnessed my children identifying 'strangers' in photographs as members of their family and found myself, like Nanna, passing on stories of 'long ago and far away'.  This is who we are, where we come from - our history, our heritage.

With this in mind, it is easy to identify with the exhibition ONE FAMILY.  Here Hughes delineates one arm of her family tree, the descendants of first generation Australians George Edwards and Mary Ellen Louise Knox.  The artist successfully translates a list of names and a collection of photographs into an installation that inspires the audience to participate in her family history, all the while encouraging them to seek out their own.  This exhibition has travelled around WA with Art on the Move since its original presentation in August 1997.  As I said then in a review for The Western Review "this is a bold presentation, one that neither celebrates nor apologies for the past ... the artist refrains from all myth making or turning ordinary people into folk heroes, she just presents a history."  I hold by that statement with the following appendix:  The additional exhibits in this display, together with Hughes current artist's statement, which notes how she has learned from the original families of this land the importance of maintaining a connection with one's cultural heritage and keep alive the stories of the ancestors, adds to the overall content of the exhibition.

Like Hughes, my family is lucky, we know our history and can take pride in our heritage.  In contrast, the two excellent photographic exhibitions that occupy the first floor of PICA remind us how some Australians have to fight to own their family's history.  Croft's IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE and Deacon's POSTCARDS FROM MUMMY take us on a journey to past events and present locations, to listen to the stories kept hidden by the old ones, to record the who and where of their families, to finally celebrate their heritage. Croft creates haunting images of blended pictures and layers of words. These are stories of her family presented in a verbal and visual format. And if at times the pictures almost obliterate the words, they cannot hide the truth. Meanwhile, Deacon presents beautiful postcard pictures of a pristine land that appears perfect. She aims her camera at those aspects of her mother's country that are flawless, but we know perfection is a point of view and never a fact. These artists reclaim what is rightfully theirs - their history including both good and bad - through remembrance and representation.

These three exhibitions offer very different approaches to the concept of owning one's own memories, histories and heritage. At first it seemed difficult to connect the geographical aspects of  location in YOU ARE HERE/VOUS ETES ICI  by Collins to the familial placement in the other exhibitions. But when you consider feelings of displacement (in your own land), of isolation (in your own family) and belonging (in memory) the concept of 'locating the self' within this installation become all important. We stand in the centre of a 'stage' surrounded by TV sets displaying us in the physical 'here and now' interspersed with images from someone else's remembered 'there and then'. We try to identify where we are but it's all too fleeting. Having viewed this exhibit last I felt it summarized the other exhibitions - we were lost but now we are here

The four exhibitions offer visual satisfaction but they also inspire a number of questions.  Are we the sum total of our history or what we make of ourselves today?  Is home where the heart is or where we are at present?  Is our heritage defined by genetics or  geography?  Is the family a collection of individuals or a single entity?  Is history owned by one or shared by many?  I must go back and look again, maybe I'll find the answers.  Frankly, I hope not, it's the questioning that's important.