Sharyn Egan works across painting, weaving, sculpture, and installation. As a member of the Stolen Generation, her practice is informed by her experiences as a Nyoongar woman, and the deep sense of loss and displacement experienced by Aboriginal people. Sharyn’s work explores personal and cultural relationships to Country, specifically her home on Nyoongar Boodja. 

The Nullians 2017 is an installation comprising over 200 found objects collected by the artist from second-hand stores, antique shops, and markets from Nyoongar Country since 2015. These hand-turned objects are made from the core of the Balga (Nyoongar name), also known by its botanical name xanthorrhoea and previously referred to as the derogatory term ‘black boys’. The bowls, vases, lampshades, bookends, and candlesticks collected were predominantly created by white male woodworkers dating back to the 1950s–70s when Balga became a valued object for the home and tourism trade. Balgas are the oldest living plants in the world, and were valuable to Nyoongar people long before colonisation. The material was used for making spears, tools, waterproof resin, and glue, as well as medicine, food, and drink. 

The work’s title is a play on the notion of ‘terra nullius’—a Latin term meaning ‘land belonging to no-one’—that was used as a legal concept by the British government to justify the dispossession of First Nations people. By referring to Aboriginal people as the ‘Nullians’ of ‘terra nullius’, Sharyn reconsiders the politics of language to centre Indigenous sovereignty, and reclaim Balga as a material.