Tracing the Sky celebrates the migration of birds and people, and their deep connection with wetlands. Migratory birds cross oceans and continents in search of safe places to feed and nest. These long journeys are part of an ongoing movement across diverse bird species, forming a vital life cycle essential to their survival. Their ability to travel vast distances speaks to their resilience, and their capacity to cross countless borders reflects a powerful sense of freedom.

Like birds, people migrate too. Migrants seek a better life, one they may not have found in the places they left behind. And just like birds, with all their diversity of colour, form and flight paths, every migrant carries their own story. These unique experiences have brought them to Australia. Migration is difficult, and if there is one thing every migrant, human or bird, shares, it is uncertainty. Uncertainty is the inability to predict what lies ahead. It is a defining part of migration. It can be unsettling, often frightening, yet it propels the journey forward.

Wetlands are key to understanding bird migration and have long shaped human journeys and movement. They are vital ecosystems that filter water, store carbon, reduce flooding, and support an extraordinary range of plant and animal life. Wetlands are also essential for human survival, as they recharge groundwater, purify water, and are the planet’s largest natural water source. For migratory birds, wetlands offer both a place to rest and a destination, providing refuge to feed and nest.

Wetlands can also serve as a metaphor for building a home in a new country. They prompt deep and personal questions about the idea of home. What is home? Where is my home? If birds are always on the move, then where is theirs? Is it possible to have more than one home? Is Australia a home for me? Without a doubt, these questions, among many others, speak to the heart of the migrant experience.

Presented as part of the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Chile and Australia, and coinciding with Chile’s national celebration on 18 September, Tracing the Sky draws a parallel between the ecological migration of birds and the human experience of migration. This interplay between the journeys of birds and people, and between wetlands as both ecosystems and symbols of home, invites reflection on the paths taken by birds and by those who have arrived in Australia. It affirms the right to migrate and to rewrite one’s life story. At the same time, it calls for the protection of wetlands, which support life in all its forms, and invites us to consider how we build our own homes.