Lux Eterna

 Lux Eterna, born of Palestinian parents in Australia calls her photographic series, “Decolonizing the Gaze”.  Lux allows her subjects to choose how and where they are photographed. 

She writes: “Having only once visited the grandmotherland in 2016 (Palestine), I never realized how displaced from my heritage or from my parents’ dispossessed  yet inherited trauma, I was. I am myself born in a land that is still maturating in the trauma from colonization and dispossession to another.” Lux Eterna presents her auto-portrait in the dress of her Palestinian ancestors and continues: “I cannot speak on behalf of our indigenous people, yet, as an ally, can help them to be heard, and be present witness to their individual and collective healing.  As well as recognizing the Darung People as traditional custodians of the land in Australia, where she lives and works, Lux wishes to honor her parents, Vera Shahin and Jacob Zaccak, born respectively, in Haifa and Jaffa, Palestine for their journeys and life-giving, and acknowledges giving voice to indigenous Palestinians as well.