Sheila's Dream
Sheila's Dream, 2025
Sheila’s dream is a single-channel video that combines multiple film techniques and technologies, conveying a time-travelling narrative reminiscent of a dreamscape. Featuring two protagonists, Sheila (Katie’s grandmother) and Dancing Sheila (her grandmother’s inner spirit or alter ego), the work navigates Katie’s conceptualisation of her grandmother’s fading mind, making real her memories in the lead-up to her death. Sheila’s dream traces Sheila and Dancing Sheila’s movement across Country as they interact with objects and places of personal and cultural significance. Presented at scale and accompanied by a 1960s-inspired soundtrack, Katie’s work intimately reflects on the strength of family connections across time, place and space.
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‘This work stems from my attempt to locate my great-grandmother’s grave at the cemetery in the town of Onslow, Thalanyji Country. Though prepared with a map from the local library, I could only guess Nanna Sheila’s exact location. Like so many of the other Aboriginal people laid to rest there, she had no headstone, only a numbered metal marker. Sheila’s number, while indicated on the map, was strewn from its original place. With the others, Sheila’s number shifted in the sand, swayed by decades of rain, wind and heat.
Disheartened by the cemetery’s neglect, I spent some time gathering a sense of where Sheila was, imagining her life in this small town, and noticing the care given to the graves marked with baler shells and honoured with flowers. Walking away, just about to step outside the cemetery entrance, I turned to take one last glance. At this moment, I could see family gathered around Sheila’s grave, and they showed me the weight of their sadness.’
– Katie West
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Commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria & Country Road for the Exhibition FUTURE COUNTRY: COUNTRY ROAD + NGV FIRST NATIONS COMMISSIONS 2026
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video, dress, baler shell, metal chair, radio, wana (digging stick), string
Mentor: Clothilde Bullen, Wardandi (Nyoongar)/Badimaya (Yamatji)
Acknowledgment: Simon Charles (sound design), and Chad Peacock and Ava Peacock (videography)