As part of the inaugural display for Wurrdha Marra, select works from the NGV Collection are presented in the atrium foyer gallery. These works include Maree Clarke’s glass eel trap, Ancestral memory I, 2019, and Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s Wire bags, 2013, made using discarded farming materials. Each of these artists actively reclaims and celebrates the processes of customary creation, ritual and artistic expression.

Ancestral memory I is a suspended glass installation fabricated during Maree Clarke’s residency at Canberra Glassworks in 2019. The installation references the migratory paths that short- finned eels take within sewers and underground waterways across and underneath Melbourne. The breeding grounds of these eels are believed to be somewhere in the Coral Sea. During their journey from the tropics to Victorian waterways, the eels metamorphose into clear and tubular animals, before taking on their final pigmented form. Aboriginal people from south-east Australia have traditionally observed and interacted with eels as signs of seasonal change, as well as sources of food.

These three wire bags produced in 2013 were displayed for the first time at the NGV for the exhibition Melbourne Now. Each sculpture is made from coiled fencing wire and has been supersized, reflecting the scale of destruction that followed post- European arrival in Australia. In an interview from 2014, Connelly-Northey described her process and reflections when working with this material, saying: ‘I thought about how this fencing wire was where my mum was living, on missions and reserves and how wire was used to keep mum in, like sheep in a paddock, but also to keep her out of her traditional Country, to go and hunt and gather, and those kind of things’.

On display is a series of light-based works by Australian First Nations artists who employ the power of light to illuminate and recontextualise their approach to Australian history. Through these examples of art and design, each of these makers has transformed the medium of light, exploring themes, such as the loss of language, sustainability, material culture and transculturation.

Wiradjuri and English words emblematic of Brook Andrew’s dual ancestry are expressed in the text: one ‘who lives passionately offers a social exchange: polemics is the skin of now’, mirroring the mixed messages of postcolonial life and the power of advertising. Representing Wiradjuri words in neon reverses the power relationships implied by the dominant position of English over a silenced language that, for Andrew, is ‘not the stuff of museum culture’.

PET Lamp Ramingining: Bukmukgu Guyananhawuy (Every family thinking forward) is a large collaborative weaving produced by nine artists from Bula’bula Arts and integrated into the PET Lamp design system by Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón and his studio. These forms were carefully woven together to create a singular large-scale collaborative work. The result of this collaboration is an expansive, uplit, suspension lamp.

This work is a dedication to the Wurundjeri Ngurungaeta (leader) William Barak.
Barak was a prominent leader, cultural ambassador, devoted father, insightful artist, and advocate for the rights and wellbeing of Aboriginal people. Early in 1903, Barak predicted his death, stating that he would die when muyan (wattle) bloomed. This is an image that Kamilaroi artist Jones references in his work. On the anniversary of William Barak’s death, in the month of August, the LED lights turn from white to muyan (wattle) yellow.

The antidote to absence is presence. Within this theme we explore artists who have used their work to explore the ‘gaps’ that persist in the way that Australian history has traditionally been taught. Drawing attention to colonial histories of erasure, artists draw from personal experiences to recontextualise our approach to history.

‘Today, we are still conditioned by historical tropes such as the bust-style portraits of colonial men who had roles in furthering the position of colonial Britain at the height of the imperial pursuit for claiming new frontiers, at the expense of the Indigenous custodians of countries including Australia. However, as famous as these colonial figures still are, I try to demonstrate that it is never too late to pierce, subvert and re-stage the spectres of history to gain agency from the position of the other. Through the work, I am proposing: let us scrutinise your history, your identities, your flaws.’
– Christian Thompson, 2017

Robert Andrew delves into identity and history, employing technology utilised by colonisers to reveal his personal connection to culture. At various intervals, a robotic arm spurts a small jet of water that reveals earth pigments collected from his father’s Country. Over time, the Yawuru word Nganga, meaning ‘language’, emerges through the texture created by erosion. The work explores Yawuru relationships with land and culture, and the ongoing history of linguicide in Australia.

Working across a variety of media, from recycled road signs and car doors, to ochre and acrylic on bark, as well as natural pigment on canvas and board, these artists challenge audiences to reconsider what Indigenous art is and can be. Embracing new media these works speak to the extraordinary history of innovation and creativity that has driven First Nations art making in Australia.

Marylin Brown Petyarr is an Alyawarr language speaker from the Antarrengenye outstation of Utopia. She was one of the artists involved with the 1990 Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association’s (CAAMA) project to paint parts of wrecked cars, which had been left abandoned on remote roads in the community.

Kaylene Whiskey combines references to her daily life in Indulkana with popular culture. This work is part of a series of energetic paintings on various supports, including road signs, canvases and found magazine papers. The work references the comic strip format with strong female figures, including Wonder Woman, Dolly Parton and Tina Turner painted into desert landscapes, interacting with native plants and wildlife, and engaging in traditional Anangu activities, such as hunting, collecting bush tucker and cultivating mingkulpa (a native tobacco plant).

One of Australia’s most revered painters, Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu was a compulsive maker of marks. Her work is known for its tonal nuance, materiality of surface and gestural freedom, defying earlier examples of Yolŋu painting. Throughout her life Yunupiŋu’s work was constantly evolving, and over the years increased in its scale and visual complexity. She expressed her obsessive preoccupation with painting through the freeness of her brushstrokes, making art primarily ‘for the joy of painting’.

For First Nations people, the relationship between art, craft and design is often a false one. These functional examples of contemporary design by First Nations makers highlight the fluid definitions of contemporary design. Each of these makers uses their work to explore Indigenous knowledges and technologies, as well as the intersection between identity, First Nations material culture, and science.

Sik Utem (Sleeping bed), also known as Peimpeim Sik, or the Dreaming bed, was made using a common joinery technique called post and rail, found also in traditional Meriam bamboo construction. The rope lashing around each joint of the design’s frame is based on a traditional method of vine fastening used to secure prongs on fishing spears and in the construction of bamboo houses, turtle fences and wind breaks.

Recast from Tony Albert’s vast collection of objects showing racist and often vulgar depictions of Aboriginal people
and culture, Nguma and Yabu are lamps that interrogate contemporary legacies of colonialism. Translating to father (nguma) and mother (yabu) in Girrimay, one of the artist’s ancestral languages, Albert names the individuals as a way of releasing them from their racist caricatures.

This bowl is made from natural, local materials sourced from the Gunbalanya area. Kunwinjku women have been developing the artform for almost 100 years, experimenting with new forms and adapting it to local materials. The coiling technique was traditionally used by southern Aboriginal people of the Murray River, and was introduced to Goulburn Island by missionary Greta Matthews in the 1920s. From here, it spread among Aboriginal people throughout Arnhem Land.

The cabinet’s front door showcases the intricate pattern of gepi, also known as fish scales. It stands on legs reminiscent of animal limbs, while its flat panel front door pays homage to Torres Strait masks. The cabinet draws inspiration from a captivating daily phenomenon on Mer Island, where vast shoals of sardines merge to form striking walls along the shoreline. These sardines, specifically the long and thin Ari Ari and the round and fat Kos, hold significance. Adorned with more than 250 bamboo fish scales, the Gepi cabinet narrates the unique bond between the Meriam people and the abundant sardine-filled sea.

Alicia Marrday, originally from Namagardabo outstation in the Northern Territory, now resides in Gunbalanya. Trained by her aunt, Ngalbulanj Nabegeyo, Marrday has transformed traditional pandanus fibre weaving into vibrant contemporary creations, such as backpacks and handbags. Marrday sources natural materials from the Kakadu/West Arnhem region, gathering fresh pandanus leaves and employing traditional dyeing techniques.

This theme delves into the innovative approach of First Nations artists in Australia, as they fearlessly embrace vibrant colours to express their cultural identities and connection to place. Breaking free from the traditional use of natural ochres and earthy tones, these artists paint vivid representations of their Country, using a daring palette of technicolour pigments.

This painterly design of rich reds, pinks and magentas, characterised by layered dotting, abundant concentric circles, arc shapes and signs of water snakes depicts the epic story of the Seven Sisters.

The Seven Sisters story revolves around a group of sisters who flee from a persistent pursuer, forming the Pleiades star cluster in the night sky as a symbol of their escape.

This immense work was painted using a mixture of rose, peach, pink, sage, white, blue and gold acrylic paints. Along the border of the canvas are twenty-nine vivid cobalt blue circles, each labelled with the name of a sacred waterhole in the East Pilbara region. The centre of the canvas is rendered with an expansive wash of white paint, the artists’ unique way of depicting the central subject matter Ngayartu Kujarra – an immense salt lake that settlers renamed ‘Lake Dora’.

The artists depict Ngurrapalangunya, a significant site connected to Uta Uta Tjangala. This is where two women encountered the being Tjuntamartu, prompting their escape to Lake Mackay while Tjuntamartu sought refuge in a cave and displaced sacred objects, forming the hill Wintalynga. The claypans represent the dance of the women and the nourishing seed-bearing plant mungilpa.

There are many artists working today who draw on the historical archive as a source of inspiration. Included in this theme is work by artists for whom the past shapes their understanding of the future. For many First Nations people, the past is not something distant or inaccessible; instead, it is intricately woven into their present reality. Whether drawing from lived memories, the historical archive, or deep time, these artists explore the cyclical order of time and how the past shapes the cultural continuity of the present.

The composition depicts Lieutenant James Cook’s landing at Botany Bay, and the people of the Eora Nation who encountered him and his fleet. The scene is populated with ships, figures, trees and animals, and is characteristic of Marlene Gilson’s style. Drawing inspiration from illustrations on biscuit tins, Indian miniatures and small dolls’ houses, Gilson is fascinated with the micro narratives of history, which she encapsulates within larger history paintings.

Gary Lee is leading queer artist and a Larrakia man with affinities to the Wadaman and Karajarri peoples. Billiamook as Icon builds on Lee’s long- time fascination with one of the first Larrakia people to interact with European settlers: a young man named Billiamook, who went on to become an interpreter and informant for early settlers. Lee has used pen, pastel and paper to rework a photograph taken by controversial Paul Heinrich Matthias Foelsche, who was a South Australian police officer of German descent, stationed in the Top End.

This mixed-media piece explores the assimilation policies of the 1950s and 1960s. The white paling fence, titled Beyond the pale, symbolises exclusion, marginalisation and living beyond societal boundaries. The phrase ‘beyond the pale’ originally referred to Irish people living outside the British-controlled area of Ireland, marked by a fence. In this context, it represents the First Nations experience in Australia, where domestic servants were treated as social outcasts.

Segar Passi’s painting of Mer (Murray Island) speaks of a profound and culturally embedded knowledge of place, with ancestral links to the ancient volcanic landscapes of Papua New Guinea. The foreground features nam (baby turtles) erupting from their nests, leaving tracks in the sand. This suggests that the vantage point for the viewer is from either Waier or Dauar, one of the two small islands that Passi was born on. These islands are home to a turtle breeding ground and are believed by Meriam people to contain powerful mystical energies.

In 1971–72, senior male artists from Papunya in the Western Desert transformed for the first-time ephemeral ritual designs that were previously placed on the body, ground and objects, into modern acrylic paintings characterised by bold geometry and numerous dots. As the 1980s and 1990s unfolded, Pintupi male artists built upon the innovations of the pioneering Papunya Tula artists. They developed a sophisticated design language centred on circular pathways, which represented the songlines of specific resting places connected by ancestral beings’ travel routes. Using these symbols, iconographies and linear geometric patterns, artists created horizonless maps of Country as a way of expressing their profound connection with the spiritual power of place.

Wintjiya Watanuma is the Pintupi word for a particular species of flying ant and is also the name of a clay pan and soakage water site north-west of Walungurru. Here, a group of ancestral women gathered to perform the songs and dances associated with this site. The red markings are like hieroglyphs: U shapes denote the seated women; short parallel lines, their digging sticks; straight lines with adjacent shorter lines, their nyimparra; and tiny circles represent the burrowed holes of the flying ants.

Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, also known
as Johnny Angus, was born in the vicinity of Tjangimanta, north-east of the Kiwirrkura community, circa 1930 and with his elder brother shared responsibility for Country around Kunarrwaritji Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route. These concentric circles represent sites of significance as part of a Tingarri Dreaming at Wanaritjarra.

This work represents body paint designs for Tingarri ceremonies associated with the rockhole site of Ralagna. Tingari is the ancient and secret, post-initiatory higher education, which Pintupi men undergo. The teachings are conveyed in lengthy song cycles for which the designs are complementary memory aids.

In this work Harry Tjutjuna paints Kungka Tjuta, in which young girls engage in a traditional Pitjantjara practice of telling stories using designs in the sand, known in language as Milpatjunanyi.

This painting depicts designs associated with the soakage water site of Kurlkurta, situated among sandhills, south-west of the Tjukurla community. In ancestral times, a large group of Tingari Men travelled from this site to Karrkurritinyta (Lake MacDonald). When the men arrived they were attacked by a huge snake, which came out of a deep hole. The men fought with the snake, but were eventually killed by it.