Warsan Mohammed
To Ourselves
This exhibition follows a protagonist on a journey to understand her longing for a motherland she has never been able to experience in its pre-conflict state, while taking ownership of her Somali identity. Growing up in Australia, she searches for her own relationship to the motherland, grappling with the feeling of missing a place she has never truly known. She carries memories that were passed down to her rather than lived herself. Through stories, photographs, language, and community, she pieces together an understanding of home, searching for connection across distance and generations.
Connecting to our identity is an act of preserving culture; it is how we keep it alive. As members of the Somali diaspora, many of us never had the opportunity to experience our motherland as our parents and grandparents knew it before the war. Instead, we inherit fragments of a homeland through stories, photographs, traditions, and the memories of those who came before us. This absence reflects a quiet sense of loss shared by many diaspora children living in a post-conflict reality. Yet alongside that grief is resilience. We continue to carry our culture forward, creating new memories while honouring those we inherited.
This exhibition is also an act of resistance through visibility. It celebrates Somali youth who proudly and unapologetically express what it means to be Somali on their own terms, challenging the narrow narratives and stereotypes that have too often defined us. Through their stories, we witness a generation preserving culture while reimagining identity across continents and generations. In doing so, they transform longing into belonging, ensuring that Somali culture is not only remembered but continuously lived.
