Home as Vessel

Cilicia Christy
Master of Architecture | University of Sydney

“In the Aboriginal worldview, everything is living, everything is connected, everything is a manifestation of something else living. Objects carry the spirit of their maker and ancestors. The artist acting as a channel. Through ceremony, stories and time, they gain layers of life stories, becoming part of an on going ancestral cycle.”

MATERIALS: gumnuts+shells

Artist Statement

Home, for me, is complex and layered—both grounding and expansive, shaped by memory, feeling, and (be)longing.Home is not a fixed place butaliving, breathing presence—woven from stories, histories, and the land itself. It is the echoes of ancestors carried forward, the strength of cultural continuity, and the quiet pull of what has been lost yet still calls to be reclaimed. Home is both nourishment and tension, a space of safety and a never- reaching thread of longing. It is where identity is rooted and where it is sought, where belonging is both inherited and created.Home exists in Country. Home exists in connection and community. Home exists in the self. Home exists in the resilience of traditions passed down and the healing of fractured connections. Home is not singular. Itiscarried, shaped, and remade. Home is a process of remembering and restoring, of intertwining past and present into something that holds, shelters and endures.

Synopsis 

Home is not static—it is carried, shaped, and continually remade. It exists in memory, in Country, in the resilience of traditions passed down, and in the healing of fractured connections. Home: AsaVessel embodies this complexity, symbolising (be)longing, nourishment, and strength. Crafted from natural plant fibers, the seed casing of a Eucalyptus Silver Princess, and Maireener shells, my object reflects the act of holding—both physically and spiritually. Each material carries deep cultural significance, anchoring me to my Ngāti Kahungunu and Palawaheritage. The loose threads of woven fiber embrace imperfection, change, and growth—traces of the hands that shape them and the stories they hold.Inspired by the Case Moth Cocoon, the vessel speaks to self-preservation and adaptation. Just as the moth gathers twigs, leaves, and barkto construct its shelter, Home: As a Vessel represents the way home is continually built and rebuilt—layered with memory, care, and quietre silience. Itisa place of refuge and transformation, safeguarding ancestral knowledge, personal histories, and cultural continuity.This object is both a response and a reclamation. It embodies the process of reconnecting with Country, culture, and self—of weaving together.