“Carry me softly is depicting one family’s loss is another family’s gain – well this was for me anyway. When I first met my birth mother approximately 15 years ago, the first thing that I blurted out of my mouth when I met her was thank you and that I am proud of you. She questioned me with a queried look on her face, and proceeded to asked me why? I replied that through your sacrifice I have been given the most beautiful life possible.’
My birth line is one of trauma; my great great grandmother was stolen, my mum was in homes at the age of 5, and me a lost generation finding home. I have 3 beautiful children that I could never think of living without them – ever, and through my ancestor’s trauma, I have held on a little tighter to them.”Lisa Waup
Lisa screen printed at Spacecraft Studio with Stewart Russell, Danica Miller, and Clara Gladstone, to create a series of works on paper and tapa cloth. These printed images ultimately represent protective shields. Shield to protect the children. Protecting the motherless children. And they protect the chosen children on their altered paths. A dual sided woman surrounded by scattered empty coolamons signifies her two mothers, Lisa’s adopted mother (my mum) holding her as a babe in arms and the second figure representing Lisa’s birth mother (my mum), letting go. The scattered coolamons made from natural materials and discarded objects, found and repurposed, represent the children that have been left, stolen and lost from home, history and Country.
