Category: Australian Indigenous Collection

Michael Cook introduces us to his dream-journey

Posted by Bruce McLean   ●   26 May 2019

Michael Cook’s photographs have become well known for a whimsical and unique interplay of surrealism and political potency. The ‘Broken Dreams’ series 2010 was one of the Queensland Indigenous photographer’s most important breakthrough works, produced in the first year of his artistic practice. Coming from a commercial background, Cook had long entertained moving into art photography and had been incubating many…

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The beauty of Lola Greeno’s necklaces

Posted by Diane Moon   ●   15 May 2019

Despite the ravages of colonisation, Palawa people have made necklaces of lustrous strings of pearlescent shells collected from the cool waters surrounding Lutruwita (Tasmania) and its islands in a cultural practice extending back thousands of years. Though for most of us a shell necklace captivates with its beauty and mystique, for the makers it is…

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Some kind of island paradise

Posted by Diane Moon   ●   23 Apr 2019

Australia has roughly 8000 islands within its maritime borders. While many are sites of difficult histories, they also maintain their unique identities through song, stories, dance and visual art, often in environments characterised by isolation and significant external influences. Here is an overview of the Indigenous Australian artists and projects from Tasmania, Arnhem Land, the…

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Jonathan Jones ‘untitled (giran)’ is a murmuration of winged sculptures

Posted by Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow   ●   30 Mar 2019

‘Murun’ — a Wiradjuri word meaning breath or life — and the English word ‘murmur’ — a low recurring sound, or soft voices — are two words born far from each other, one long of this land, one newly spoken here. They converge in this project by artist Jonathan Jones, the most recent in a…

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Vale: Mavis Ngallametta

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   13 Feb 2019

On 28 January, Mrs Waal-Waal Mavis Ngallametta (1944–2019), one of Queensland’s most esteemed senior artists, passed away at the age of 74, surrounded by family at her home in Aurukun, in far north Queensland. A traditional owner, elder of the Putch clan and cultural leader of the Wik and Kugu people, Mavis Ngallametta is remembered…

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An incredible story: Kumantje Jagamara and Imants Tillers

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   20 Jun 2018

While Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM and Imants Tillers have worked on panel paintings collaboratively since 2001, creating 24 works, Metafisica Australe 2017 (illustrated) holds special meaning: it reflects on the origins of their collaboration, which developed following Tillers’s use of elements of Jagamara’s Five Stories 1984 in his 1985 work titled The Nine Shots. His…

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