Magistrate’s Court) that the work was about sites of natural phenomena - fire and flood. The work’s true meaning was only unveiled once installed. Her work entitled Black Opium, commissioned by the State Library of Queensland in 2006, explores themes of history, memory and politics through sculptural installations and photographs, and references the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 as well as the impacts of the British colonial opium trade on both Chinese and Indigenous communities. By exhibiting these works within the context of Western cultural institutions, Foley aims to evidence and embed oppressive Australian histories where they have previously been excluded. At other times Foley’s work strikes a more playful or satirical political tone. Her appropriation of ethnographic imagery and "Aboriginalia" (kitsch objects depicting Indigenous Australians in a culturally insensitive manner) serve to critique these claims to the representation of Indigenous people. Positioning herself as both subject and author, Foley rectifies power imbalances and reconstructs an oppressive history. Works such as 1994’s Native Blood and Badtjala Woman demonstrate an aim to undermine and challenge the historical and "scientific" sanctity of such images, whilst highlighting the West’s idealisation, sexualisation and exploitation of Indigenous culture as an exotic aesthetic. Connection to place features heavily throughout Foley’s practice. Themes of nature - sand and sea - pervade pictorial works and foreground the significance of Foley’s ancestral ties to Thoorgine (Fraser Island). The Legends of Moonie Jarl, a book written and illustrated in the 1960s by Foley’s aunt and uncle, relates numerous Badtjala creation stories that describe the animals, vegetation and weather patterns of the island. This text, her mother and her stints in Arnhem Land are considered major reference points for Foley’s 2D practice. Men's Business (1987–89), Catching Tuna (1992) and Salt Water Islands (1992) depict Foley’s experience during her time visiting the remote communities of Maningrida and Ramingining in the Northern Territory. They demonstrate the minimalism, flatness and "symbolic abstraction" that is characteristic of Foley’s pastels and paintings. Typically making use of an aerial perspective, these works privilege meditative spatiality over didactic naturalistic representations. Significantly, this counters historical ethnographic and spectatorial depictions of Indigenous culture by settlers. Contrarily, Foley’s work impresses a sense of myth, memory and dream - both personal and collective. Politically, this practice is an affirmative reclamation of symbols, narratives, cultures and histories that have previously been appropriated or erased. Foley is represented