About the Artist My name is Jack George, I am a 23-year-old Wurrundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung man. I've always wanted to engage more with the arts, and while I’ve spent a little time delving into music and dance, I haven’t had as much experience with visual media. My connection to my Culture and Country depends on engaging with the ideas that make them unique and that I personally find interesting and meaningful. Drawing has always been a tool I use to explain complex concepts, both to myself and others especially those ideas that are hard to capture in words. There are many concepts I wish to explore and communicate, and I believe I can express them through this kind of art. About the Artwork For this piece I made charcoal by burning firewood from home. After crushing, grinding, and mixing it with water, I used my hands and a chopstick to spread it across calico laid canvas. This artwork began as a small sketch in my notebook, conceived as a solution to a classification problem I encountered while trying to describe interconnected Indigenous themes such as Songlines, The Dreaming, Ceremony, and Connection to Country. The challenge was that explaining any one of these concepts required referencing all the others, as their meanings are interdependent. The central cycle represents The Dreaming, a state where all knowledge and matter are interwoven in a continuous loop, without beginning or end. The branches emerging from The Dreaming symbolise the distinctions we make through categorisation. They grow from the same source, the separations arise only when we begin to define and communicate them. These distinctions are the result of converting understanding into language, and while necessary, you need to remember that they are choices. Where the lines are drawn influences how we perceive the world and act within it.