Human beings have a strong need to belong, whether it be to a family, a community or humanity at large. In Belonging, Jeannie Baker explores this need. She takes the reader on a visual journey through twenty-four years in the life of Tracy Smith, her family, her community and her city. Baker also explores the importance not just of living on, but of belonging to and caring for the land that supports us and on which we build our cities.

As in her companion work Window (2002), Baker tells her story using visual narrative alone. The visual plot, and its many subplots, are supported by verbal ‘captions’ – road signs, advertising billboards, shop signs, graffiti and the memorabilia found in the casement window of Tracy’s inner-city terrace home in Sydney. However, the visual narrative should not be read at one sitting. While the plot is linear, it works on many levels. It requires multiple readings, each focusing on one specific object: the window frame, the front yard, the street, the car yard, the corner store, the end of the main road, the smash repairs shop, the apartment block across the street. Each has its own story to tell, and only a close reading will reveal all that Baker has to communicate.