Niah uses a visual symbolic language, both codified and vibrant, which forms one of the foundations of his stylistic approach. This language allows Niah to convey stories that are both personal and collective, and to echo, in each work, the memory of the land, spiritual heritage and lived experience.

Bana means rain, which she evokes with fine, sometimes wavy lines suggesting runoff.
Gugaa refers both to the rings of stringy bark represented by concentric circles and to the texture of its fibrous bark.
Waraawara corresponds to a fishing line, represented by a thick line, sometimes taut, sometimes sinuous.

In this work, Niah recounts memories of her non-Aboriginal grandfather, who ran a fly fishing school in Jindabyne, in Monaro territory: "It is thanks to him that I have so many memories of this region. Stringy bark is our emblematic tree, a tree that is deeply important to our Yuin community. ‘ She continues: ’It's a variety of eucalyptus. It's a bit like fishing in the heart of the eucalyptus forests, where my grandfather ran a fly fishing school. Every spring, we would go there to learn or just try it out." Unbeknownst to her, her maternal grandfather had settled on the very Aboriginal lands where Niah's father came from. Thus, Bana Gugaa Waraawara goes beyond the simple recollection of a moment in time. The work becomes a space of resonance between family history, artistic gesture and Aboriginal cosmology. Through this series, Niah Juella McLeod invites us to slow down, to feel, and to relearn how to see the world through a deep sensitivity inherited from the earth.