Currently on loan to the Australian Embassy to Japan, in Tokyo, My Mother’s Country is a response to Daisy Andrews’ evocative Lumpu Lumpu Country tapestry, woven at the ATW in 2004.

The country of Lumpu Lumpu is Andrews’ ancestral terrain, but her family were already displaced from it before she was born. Stories about the land were narrated by her family, who were too traumatised to return to it. Andrews only visited Lumpu Lumpu later in life and her paintings, drawings and prints are made as memorials to her homeland.

The tapestry captures the drama of the Lumpu Lumpu landscape with its cliffs, valleys, blazing red earth and a carpet of wildflowers that echoes the lavender sky, suffused with stories of Andrews’ dispossession of her country. As a member of the stolen generations, Cheetham’s journey home was far from straight forward. Cheetham’s lyrics for My Mother’s Country conveys her experience of dislocation and a desire to help all Australia reconnect.

My Mother’s Country

pukanyja marna winkirrmani last night I had a dream.

Ngajukura jaja my grandmother

Ngajukura ngamaji my mother

Lungujangka marnanya pinamani. I heard them crying.

Marna winkirrmani Yilpinyji I dreamed a love song

Ngajukura ngamaji ngurrara for my mother’s country

pukanyja marna winkirrmani yarntawarlany last night I dreamed once more

Marna yanku jalarra marrinyungu minyartingurni ngurra. I’m going on a journey far from this place.

Jarranyanya marnangu. I waited for you.

Ngalijarra parli yanku. We (you and I) will go together

Ngalijarra winkirrmanku Yilpinyji We will dream a love song

Ngajukura ngamaji ngurrara for my mother’s country

Featuring musicians from Short Black Opera, Plexus and master Shakuhachi player Reison Kuroda, My Mother’s Country premiered in Tokyo in 2019.