I Will Survive

(2020)

It is said that memory changes whenever remembered, and its revision becomes a new truth. The action of exploiting memories for storytelling is often done without conscious thought. Memories, when created, are subjective to their beholder and, when recited, are adjusted according to their audience.

I Will Survive is concerned with stories of caution, superstition, and survival in the bush passed on to Hayley as a child. These cautions came in the form of warnings, myths, stories of ghosts and hauntings from her Aboriginal and migrant parents and grandparents. Carried from a young age, these experiences and stories become embellished or accrue heightened emotional resonances – they shift and change in their constant retelling. While some recollections become fictionalised, others are cinematic and profound. The stories and memories planted as early seeds grow and change as we experience life.

”Recalling memories formed in my childhood and meditating on these stories in adulthood, I can’t help but dissect my memory’s influences and influencers and what roles my Aboriginal and migrant parents and grandparents played in feeding lessons and myths into my subconscious.” - ‘The truth is’, Hayley Millar Baker.