Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes, 2020

Tracey Holmes (b. 1966), sports broadcaster and journalist, has covered twelve Olympic Games and was the first woman to host an Australian national sports program, Grandstand. Stan Grant (b. 1963), a proud Wiradjuri man, has reported on Australian and international news and political affairs for the ABC, SBS, CNN International, Al Jazeera and Sky News Australia. Grant and Holmes began a relationship in 2000 after working together at Channel Seven on the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece. The pair moved to Hong Kong and Beijing, and married while on a return holiday to Sydney in 2001. In 2014, after living and working overseas off and on for fourteen years, the couple returned to Australia to reconnect with their country, family and community.

Nic Walker's intention in creating a portrait of the couple was to 'document their story of love and connection, culture and place'. It was shot on the Yarrangobilly River near Gundagai, at a site that was a meeting place for Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri people. It's a place where Grant's Wiradjuri heritage connects with Holmes' link to her Chinese ancestors, who settled in the district in the nineteenth century. As Grant revealed to the ABC at the launch of the work: 'Where we are is as important, if not more important, than who we are … It's not just a love story between us, it's a love story of country, and what country means to so many people.'

Gift of the artist 2021
© Nic Walker