Art historians argue that the life of the artist should be viewed independently of their art but, for most Aboriginal artists, art is a cultural expression that encompasses their lives.
Miranda Tapsell in Top End Wedding, a new Australian film about identity and belonging, directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires).
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Romantic comedy meets road movie in Wayne Blair’s much anticipated new film.
An illustration of Palorchestes azael, a marsupial tapir from the Pleistocene of Australia. There is evidence that this extinct species is depicted in rock art from the Kimberley.
Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia Commons
Indigenous artists and arts centres from the Kimberley region were invited to help curate this new exhibition, presented as part of the Perth Festival 2019.
Kathleen Petyarre looking across Atnangker country, Northern Territory, December 2000.
Photograph Ian North; courtesy Wakefield Press
A new exhibition pairs paintings by Indigenous Australian artists with microscopic images captured by scientists. The parallels, as this gallery of pictures shows, are intriguing.
A scene from the best-selling ‘Red: A Haida Manga,’ a revenge story.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Today, beauty counts for little in the judgement of works of art. But our felt experience of beauty connects us with an object’s maker, revealing a pure moment of humanity.
Detail from William Barak, Figures in possum skin cloaks, 1898, pencil, wash, charcoal solution, gouache and earth pigments on paper, 57.0 x 88.8 cm (image and sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, 1962
Robert Merritt, author of The Cake Man, grew up on the Erambie Mission at Cowra. His play captures the grinding poverty and emotional paralysis of the mission experience.
A.B. Original member Briggs performs at the 2017 ARIA Awards.
AAP Image/David Moir
Aboriginal women are at the heart of two events at the Sydney Festival, which grapple with the impact of colonisation on their lives.
Indigenous artists, including Josephine Mick, experience the immersive multimedia DomeLab, part of the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition.
George Serras, NMA
This exhibition at the National Museum of Australia is not only brilliant but marks an important turning point in how Aboriginal art is exhibited.
Ngathu, in Bangarra’s Ones Country, is a brilliant combination of the contemporary and traditional, telling the story of the ngathu, or cycad, in Arnhem Land.
Photo by Daniel Boud
Bangarra’s current season of three new works, Ones Country, is uneven in parts but worth seeing for the diversity of Indigenous stories from some new choreographic voices.
Sabbia Gallery - Alison Milyika Carroll working on a pot at Ernabella Arts ceramic studio, 2017.
Photo Ernabella Arts, Courtesy of Sabbia Gallery
Clay Stories, a travelling exhibition, showcases ceramic art from Indigenous artists across the country. It is a triumphant display of specific stories and Dreamings, standing against cultural and political amnesia.
Indigenous Australians use ochre to add colour and detail to items such as this shield at the South Australian Museum.
Image courtesy of South Australian Museum
Ochre is more than just paint - it tells stories of culture and trade in Indigenous Australians. Using museum artefacts plus science can track ochre sources and untangle a lost history.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne