Joan Ross ‘You were my biggest regret’: diary entry 1806

Joan Ross is known for her interdisciplinary practice that confronts Australia’s colonial legacy. In this portrait, she has painted herself as a colonial woman holding the stump of a tree with deep tenderness, like a lover.

‘There is regret in my eyes as I look back through time, thinking about the damage caused through colonisation,’ says Ross.

‘Behind me is a watercolour of Castle Hill [NSW] from 1806. My portrait fuses with this historical picture of colonisation. She sees, and we see, that she is a part of it, part of the greed and all the sadness and destruction colonisation has caused.’

Ross points out that trees have been on Earth for approximately 400 million years. ‘As a child seeing a tree cut down, I would imagine all the insects and spiders and birds living in them. I wondered where they would go – I envisaged them trudging along in a long line looking for a new home.’

Ross was a finalist in the 2021 Archibald. She won the 2017 Sulman and was the judge for this year’s Sulman Prize.