My body of work explores my personal experience of listening to the stories of my grandparents who left Latvia and emigrated to Australia. Nature is deeply embedded in Latvian culture; my family's surname is derived from the Latvian word for 'birch tree'. Thus, I have used the recurring motif of the birch tree to represent my family's narrative embedded in the landscape and history of Latvia. The symbols that make up the frames draw on Baltic mythology with particular reference to the sun, which signifies life, unity and the eternal.

My body of work highlights the overuse of plastic in modern food packaging. Society seems to place great value on single-use plastic, with supermarkets sheathing their products in it. By presenting these 'throwaway' items as my subject, using a traditional vanitas style and the medium of ceramics, I expose the ironies in how we collectively value plastic. By representing something like a chip bag in fastidious detail I place the significance of art on it, and position the viewer to consider the value they put on these items.

I wanted my body of work to represent my culture so my teacher and I did some research and found out that the island I was from would be wiped out in about 50 years, so I wanted to share it around to let everyone know and to make a change.

My body of work is about being spiritually strong. I am proud to be a descendant of the oldest continuing culture in the world, Australia's original peoples / First Peoples of this country. Through photography and sculpture I have made a personal journey exploring my identity, learning about my Country, community, family law, sovereign knowledge, custodianship and expectations of my culture. It is my intention to have our culture and history, our place as this continent's First People, embraced and celebrated as a unique feature of this continent's story. To reclaim what we should never have lost or been denied – who I am.

Imagine if you could buy freedom? For some, the cost is much greater than for others. Gold is indicative of privilege, wealth, social class and freedom. Gold is also the colour of the thermal blankets that refugees drape themselves in. For refugees, gold is not a symbol to display their prosperity or liberty, but a tool for survival. Playing upon gold’s associations of commerce, celebrity and wealth, in jarring contrast to the plight of refugees, my body of work’s intent is to challenge the viewer by asking them to reconsider their understanding of the true value of freedom, and its cost.

Sticks and Stones … is about racial discrimination. Influenced by Ben Quilty, Peter Sharp, John Coburn and Albert Tucker's works, I have used clay bones to represent the title. The sculpture represents the individual with a particular cultural background, with the 'skin' revealing words spoken by others, and the parrot signifying Australians. Each phrase identifies words spoken by bullies, the feelings that are felt and the words spoken by the mother. The shadow paintings represent the effect of time on the individual's growth and acceptance of their own identity.