Ngura Puḻka at the National Gallery of Australia is a landmark exhibition of 30 paintings by Indigenous artists in the APY Arts Centre Collective, which was investigated over claims white workers had interfered with black art
In the history of Australian art, you’d be hard pressed to find an exhibition that has received more media coverage than the National Gallery of Australia’s winter blockbuster, Ngura Puḻka – Epic Country. Yet very little of this coverage has been about the exhibition itself, which opens today in Canberra. Instead, Ngura Puḻka – a landmark exhibition of 30 new paintings by Indigenous artists of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands – has been the subject of intense controversy, spurred by a series of shocking allegations published in The Australian. These led to a string of investigations, sustained and divisive public commentary, a multimillion dollar lawsuit and a three-year postponement.
Walking through the gallery spaces, you might wonder what all the fuss was about. On the face of it, this is an entirely uncontroversial exhibition: 30 large-scale paintings of the desert country and tjukurpa – ancestral stories/cultural law – of the Aṉangu in South Australia’s north-west. To look at, the paintings are remarkable only for their size, colour and frequent beauty. Aerial views of the APY Lands show waterholes, riverbeds, spinifex and other flora; earth tunnels formed by honey ants. Some paintings show key Aṉangu tjukurpa, including the story of the Seven Sisters, and spirits, such as the mischievous “mamu”.