Crosses and Losses

This quilt was made for the Celebration Quilts 2000 - a juried quilt show run by Canberra Quilters to celebrate one hundred years of Federation.

While driving through different Australian states to teach I have noticed that every small town has its war memorial. Some names are repeated in several wars, and many people gave their children in defence of our country. The panels of crosses celebrate those who died - whether aboriginal or Anglo, theirs or ours, with equal importance to both dark and light crosses.

The other part of the quilt represents what is commonly known as the Stolen Generation. Though the removal of children from their families was well intentioned, it is obvious in retrospect that it was the wrong thing to do.

Roads in the background could be two cultures converging, or diverging, depending on your point of view.

Photograph by Andrew Sikorski.