Kathy Donnelly’s ‘Scar Tree’ Project

“To be is to be perceived”
(Esse est perc ipi.)
Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1752)
The Scar Tree
In the winter of 2009, I was delighted to find a very large scar tree on our land; only to feel quite distressed when, a few months later, the scar tree fell over.
It had been eaten out by white ants and, in this weakened state, was vulnerable to the summer storms.
The scar on the tree was made when bark or wood was removed to make a canoe.
The hole inside the scar made me wonder.
That hole wasn’t empty; it held memories and stories of life on the river in times gone by.
Opinions are divided as to whether the canoe was made by Indigenous people perhaps hundreds of years ago or by the South Sea Islanders, who were indentured labourers on the sugar plantations around the end of the 19th Century.
Either way, the fallen scar tree told a story of loss.
Loss of country, loss of culture, loss even of the scar tree.
I felt the need to make reparation for this loss and so I made a shroud for the scar tree.
“Reparation...is the universal human response to knowledge of our capacity for destructiveness, and is the basis of art and culture.” (Pajaczkowska, C. On Stuff and Nonsense in Textile Volume 3/1 2005)
Kathy Donnelly
2010
Please leave a comment for Kathy. This is a powerful and moving work. Chris