My Heritage Coccoon Jars, or Hu, reference the silk cocoons that were the source of ancient China’s wealth. Ceramic Hu of the Han Dynasty were used to hold precious oils and wines, the form being the indicator of precious contents. My Heritage Coccoon Jars/Hu also hold precious contents, preserving and holding material and spiritual connections to place, flora, land and ancestral journeys. Silk strands are fragile yet resilient just as DNA strands are genetically complex and resilient, holding generations, weaving and preserving place, identity.

My grandfather Edward (Ned) Chong left Amoy (Xiamen) in the 1860s. By 1898 he had established the Chinese Gardens at Hookeys Waterhole near Oodnadatta, far north South Australia. He married my grandmother, Lower Southern Arrernte woman Mini Bell and my father Richard was born there in 1914. These Hu reference my how my grandfather transformed a red gibber desert landscape into a lush, abundant place bearing fruits, vegetables, melons, dates and vines against a backdrop of native mulga, spinifex and hakea.