‘Guringai Bricks from my home’ investigates the Duffys Forest Brickworks Quarry operational between early 1960’s till 1991 on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It is the conversations I had with Guringai Indigenous Elder Laurie Bimson about working with, handling and the history of removal of ochre clay by the Brickworks that I learned, for the Guringai Indigenous community it is a ceremonial clay. I then discovered there are very little ochre deposits remaining in Guringai and that my home was built from bricks made from the excavated clay from this quarry in 1968. By pressing hand-made commercial clay tiles into the bricks of my home, I think about the significance of found clay that is potentially a sacred material to Indigenous cultures.
The brick pressings remain unglazed whereas the glazed areas around the brick on each tile represents the traditional tiles used in suburban homes.