This could be for a whole range of different reasons but we tend to associate places with memories of significant events from our lives. We also bring to places overlays of our cultural perspectives that include our values and beliefs.

This can be purely personal or can be shared by a community.

Simply returning to significant sites can trigger a flood of memories and feelings that may have receded in our minds. Visiting places of personal significance reawakens our history and in this way memory is kept alive.

This link can be easily lost due to political and changing circumstances and many communities have found themselves having to advocate for their right to maintain a connection to their place.

Warwick Keen’s exhibition Back to Burra Bee Dee – now on at Orange Regional Gallery – presents artist Warwick Keen’s connection to a significant historical and cultural site near Coonabarabran and celebrates his ancestors’ efforts to maintain this bond.

It looks specifically at Mary Jane Cain, the artist’s great, great grandmother and the area of land known as "Burra Bee Dee" that was bequeathed to the Aboriginal people at the end of the 19th century.

Recognising that her peoples’ connection to their land was in danger of being severed, Mary Jane Cain wrote a letter to Queen Victoria in 1893 requesting land to be given back to her people.

In a recent interview with Museums and Galleries NSW, Warwick Keen explained that she advocated for her peoples’ land rights “so that they could get on with their own lives and become independent and self sustaining. As a result of my great, great grandmother’s persistence in advocating for the rights of her people the Governor bequeathed a total of 600 acres to Mary Jane with the proviso that it be shared and utilised for the good of the entire Aboriginal community.”

“Mary Jane was a Land Rights activist and a very formidable woman who had the tenacity and gumption to be able to stand up for her people in the name of creating a more just and equitable lifestyle for the entire Indigenous community, of her time. The Governor responded and the land was given.”

Keen superimposes his own contemporary photographs of Burra Bee Dee over old family photographs handed down to him from his aunt.

The impression is one of layers of memory over and through the land, implying the continuity of previous generations in the landscape today.

Through his work, the artist in reconnecting with his heritage and a particular area and is also offering us a point of connection and understanding.

Back to Burra Bee Dee runs until December 4. Also showing is Editioned: Prints from the Collection and Roy Jackson: Retrospective 1963-2013.

Orange Regional Gallery is open 10am to 4pm (except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Good Friday). Exhibitions are free.

For more information contact 6393 8136 or visit www.org.nsw.gov.au