The Year of the Rabbit project is an autobiographical body of work exploring my Chinese ancestry. I am an Australian with a mixed ancestry heritage. My father was a British immigrant who came to Australia with his parents as a child. My mother’s family history has been in Australia shortly after the British colonised the continent after establishing a new penal colony when they lost the American war and their colonies within North America. There have been stories within our family over the last few generations that our family also has Chinese and Aboriginal ancestry. A genealogy search and DNA test confirmed my Chinese heritage despite little to no cultural remnants within our way of life reflecting this background. My third great-grandfather immigrated to Australia from Southern China during the mid-nineteenth century gold rush era as a shopkeeper. Since this discovery, I have travelled to Southern China to experience this concealed family culture and attempt to witness this aspect of my family history. Chinese Australians were treated terribly up to the twentieth century, with the Australian Government employing legislation prohibiting Chinese Australians from accessing rights normally afforded to other citizens. The Government policy called ‘The White Australian Policy’ deliberately discriminated against Australians of Chinese descent and remained in force until 1973. This work documents my experience reconnecting with the beautiful culture of the Chinese people and my lost family heritage. The work is somewhat self-biographical but mostly a mirror of my family background that remained hidden for so long. I was born in the Year of the Rabbit, my Chinese zodiac animal.

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Project Status: Ongoing