First Nations Art

Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion.

Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices. Design: Building on Country issues a challenge for a new Australian design ethos, one that truly responds to the essence of Country and its people.

About the series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

Other titles in the series include: Songlines by Margo Neale & Lynne Kelly (2020); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Plants by Zena Cumpston, Michael Fletcher & Lesley Head (2022); Astronomy (2022); Law (2023).

*Ebook available through all major etailers*

Showcases the work of Australia's indigenous artists from all parts of the continent. This book provides information about the impact of urban living, the growth of local art centres which support the work of indigenous artists, and the rise of women artists.

'The vast sweeping story of Aboriginal Australia from 1788 is told in Richard Broome's typical lucid and imaginative style. This is an important work of great scholarship, passion and imagination.' -Professor Lynette Russell, Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University

In the creation of any new society, there are winners and losers. So it was with Australia as it grew from a colonial outpost to an affluent society.

Richard Broome tells the history of Australia from the standpoint of the original Australians: those who lost most in the early colonial struggle for power. Surveying over two centuries of Aboriginal-European encounters, he shows how white settlers steadily supplanted the original inhabitants, from the shining coasts to inland deserts, by sheer force of numbers, disease, technology and violence. He also tells the story of Aboriginal survival through resistance and accommodation, and traces the continuing Aboriginal struggle to move from the margins of a settler society to a more central place in modern Australia.

Broome's Aboriginal Australians has long been regarded as the most authoritative account of black-white relations in Australia. This fifth edition continues the story, covering the impact of the Northern Territory Intervention, the mining boom in remote Australia, the Uluru Statement, the resurgence of interest in traditional Aboriginal knowledge and culture, and the new generation of Aboriginal leaders.


'Richard Broome's historical analysis breaks the back of every theoretical argument about colonialism and establishes a clear pathway to understanding the present situation.'
Sharon Meagher, Aboriginal Education Development Officer, Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide

![CDATA[ This is the 50,000-year story of the Australian Aboriginal rock art of Arnhem Land. Aboriginal rock art, as practised in Arnhem Land, is the world's longest continuing art tradition. It is a tradition that is not merely decorative, but provides a "journey in time" - a pictorial record of the longest surviving culture on earth. Occurring at thousands of different sites, and of many different styles, the rock paintings of this region date from at least 30,000 years ago, and some may have been in place as early as 50,000 years ago. The oldest galleries pre-date the Hall of Bulls and Lascaux in France.This book explores the depth and complexity of this art tradition and gives insight into the aesthetic and cultural worlds of the people who created it. 'Journey in Time' has been written and illustrated with the permission of the Gagudju people, the traditional owners of the land.]]

This stunning book is a biography and a generous sharing of Yorna's Culture and traditional beliefs. Explore the meaning of Country, Lalai ('Creation'), Wandjina, Woongudd (the 'Snake'), in the author's Country in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. 

Full of extraordinary images of the landscape, rock art, stone arrangements and the artist's paintings, Yornadaiyn Woolagoodja is a feast for anyone interested in this rich Cultural heritage. Special feature boxes on Joonba ('Corroborree'), Native Title, Permisson and Respect, Sugarbag, Ancestors' Bones, Collecting Turtle and many more. 

This stunning companion to the National Museum of Australia's blockbuster Indigenous-led exhibition, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, explores the history and meaning of songlines, the Dreaming or creation tracks that crisscross the Australian continent, of which the Seven Sisters songline is one of the most extensive. 

Through stunning artworks (many created especially for the exhibition), story, and in-depth analysis, the book will provide the definitive resource for those interested in finding out more about these complex pathways of spiritual, ecological, economic, cultural, and ontological knowledge — the stories 'written in the land'.

In the early days we did painting. Cultural way. For ourselves.

Then on the mission Sister Alice was working with the young men and women, like Gracie Green and Matthew Gill. We did a lot of landscapes at the start. Then after that people did a lot of paintings for the church.

Then we decided we gotta do our own painting now. About ngurra and tjukurrpa. Ngurra are the places we came from, our Country. We came to the mission from Kiwirrkurra, from Canning Stock Route, from Mulan lake Country. All the different families. All now to this Country we call Balgo.

And we have always enjoyed our culture. We never stopped. Always dancing and singing, teaching our kids and keeping our culture strong. Here in Balgo. We keep our ceremonies, we visit our Country. That’s why we still live here. That’s why we paint. That story from our Tjamu and Tjatja (grandfather and grandmother). Our rockholes and waters where we used to live. We paint that. Our bush tucker and lovely bush potatoes! We paint that.

Balgo is Country for all of us now. We were all born here, these generations here today. We are Wirrimanu kids. We belong to Balgo. That’s what we paint. That’s why we paint. This is our story.

— Eva Nagomarra, Warlayirti Artists

This beautiful monograph features countless images of full colour artworks from communities including Birrundudu, Papunya, Yuendumu and Balgo and language groups including Kukatja, Djaru, Warlpiri, Nyining, Ngarti, Wangkajunga and Manjilyjarra. It is deeply grounded in country has been put together in conjunction with the Warlayirti Arts Centre.

The publication of this material is an unprecedented achievement. Geoffrey Bardon's exquisitely recorded notes and drawings reproduced here document the early stages in this important art group. This landmark book features more than five hundred paintings, drawings and photographs from Bardon's personal archive.

Why are these specific artworks the subject of this first monograph? Produced in 2018, the sumptuous paintings, aa is the Kulata Tjuta Kupi Kupi installation, are collaborative artworks. They are reminiscent of the collaborative production process of art in Aboriginal Australia. These major works, in which a variety of Dreaming stories that define the region converge, form cornerstones of the collection that lies at the heart of the Fondation Opale. The Fondation Opale, and its founder and driving force Bérengère Primat, has a particularly strong and active relationship with the art centres and the artists of that region of Australia. Several journeys were made to the APY lands in Central Australia. Both paintings, to which respectively several senior women and men collaborated, were commissioned by Bérengère Primat and the painting process abundantly documented. These magisterial paintings are testimony to the continuum of culture and intimate knowledge of the land through art. Kupi Kupi, an iteration of the ongoing Kulata Tjuta (many spears in the Pitjantjatjara language) initiated in 2010, is a contemporary and monumental art installation consisting of 1500 spears. It is a metaphor for contemporary Anangu society and the unpredictable direction in which it is moving. All these artworks are testimony to the renewal and relevancy of Aboriginal art in contemporary times. Text in English and French. AUTHORS: Georges Petitjean is an art historian whose PhD thesis concerned the art found in the deserts of western Australia. His main research interest lies in tracing the path Aboriginal art has taken from its origins right up to the world of international contemporary art. He was the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht from 2005 to 2017. Since 2017 he has been the curator of the Collection Bérengère Primat, one of the foremost collections of Aboriginal art in the world. Lisa Slade is assistant director for art programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Her recent curatorial projects include Kulata Tjuta at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, France; Quilty, a travelling exhibition of the work of Australian artist Ben Quilty; John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, as well as curator in 2016 in Adelaide of the Australian Art Biennale. 45 colour illustrations

The collection of Joëlle and Pierre Clément includes Australian painters whose work draws on Aboriginal culture and traditions. This catalog by Kunsthaus Zug features 80 works by 50 artists from the collection, as well as paintings by Emily Kame Kngwarreye. The image and text contributions allow for an in-depth examination of the color-intensive, supposedly abstract painting and shed light on the diverse artistic positions as well as the different peoples and regions of Central Australia. With their "dot paintings," the painters translate their millennia-old culture between traditional mythology and postcolonial reality into fascinating images created for international viewers.

The publication brings together 50 painters, including established names such as Kathleen Petyarre and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, as well as lesser-known positions. One focus is on the works of EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE (1910-1996).

Aboriginal Elder David Mowaljarlai and photographer Jutta Malnic rekindle a story that constitutes the oldest collective memory of humankind. Yorro Yorro tells of Wandjina creation spirits and their 'crossing over' into ancestral beings and then eventually into human form. 

Yorro Yorro translated from Ngarinyin means 'everything standing up alive'. It follows the journey of original creation in the Kimberley and renewal of nature. Yorro Yorro is a testament to the extraordinary collective knowledge of the Wandjina peoples of the Kimberley.

Historically, photographs of Indigenous Australians were often produced under unequal and exploitative circumstances. Today, however, such images represent a rich cultural heritage for descendants who can use this rich archive to explore Aboriginal history, to identify relatives, and to reclaim culture. InAboriginal photographiescontributors investigate the Indigenous significance of engaging with images from each of the former colonies. The result is a fresh perspective on Australias past, and on present-day Indigenous identities. Rather than telling us what the white photographer saw,Aboriginal photographiesfocuses upon the interactions between photographer and Indigenous people and the living meanings the photos have today.

Riverland - Yvonne Koolmatrie charts the decades-long practice of the renowned Ngarrindjeri weaver. Embedded in the traditions of Ngarrindjeri culture and animated by her boundless imagination, Koolmatrie's elegant woven forms are created using the labour-intensive process of hand-harvested native river sedge from the banks of the Murray River. It charts her development as an artist, pays homage to other Aboriginal artists as her key influences, outlines her commitment to passing on knowledge and demonstrates how Koolmatrie's work has brought the craft practice of her people into the context of contemporary art. With essays by esteemed curators Nici Cumpston, John Kean and Hetti Perkins, an autobiographical text by the artist and an extensive bibliography, Riverland is a landmark publication honouring the pioneering work of Yvonne Koolmatrie.

Australian Aboriginal Paintings presents an overview of traditional Aboriginal religious paintings. They are all 'from' the Dreaming, the Tjukurrpa, the Wonggar, the Creation, and express this now, in present day Australia.

Ala. Alatuti. Oloodoodi. Patrick. Tjungurray. He is a man of many names, and they speak to many lives lived. Each handle gets held for a while in different times and places. He was a young warrior by his first name, but by each of his subsequent names he has stood just as proud. By each of those names he has fought for his rights, and the rights of his people, to live their lives their way, on their terms.

Through the prism of Patrick’s art and life, this book illuminates a unique part of the twentieth century Australian history and art history. It also tells of a health crisis face Aboriginal people across Australia and an innovative and effective response to this crisis being driven by an extraordinary Indigenous organisation, the Purple House (Western Desert Dialysis).

Patrick Tjungurrayi is revered throughout the Western Desert for his strength in Aboriginal Law, feted in the art-world for the originality and power of his paintings, and respected everywhere for his stand against the inadequate health bureaucracy of central Australia. His life illuminates the history, art history, and political history of Australia throughout the twentieth century. This is his story.

All proceeds from the sale of this book support the work of the Purple House in providing dialysis and essential support service to people in Central Australia and beyond.

Astronomical auction prices in the late 1990s first drew many people's attention to the phenomenon of the early Papunya boards, the thousand small painted panels created at the remote Northern Territory Aboriginal settlement of Papunya in 1971-72. Western Desert art expert Vivien Johnson looks at the controversies that surrounded the paintings at the time of their creation – and what they mean now to the artists' descendants; the role of teacher Geoffrey Bardon; the depiction of sacred imagery, and the distant worlds of art auctions and international exhibitions. A gripping narrative work, this book is an important intervention in Australian art history.

Celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Papunya Tula Artists, from the very first experiments on scraps of cardboard, linoleum, and Masonite through to the epic abstract paintings that are showcased internationally today.

A timely re-examination of European engagements with indigenous art and the presence of indigenous art in the contemporary art world.

The arts of Africa, Oceania and native America famously inspired twentieth-century modernist artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Ernst. The politics of such stimulus, however, have long been highly contentious: was this a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated, or just one more example of Western colonial appropriation?

This revelatory book explores cross-cultural art through the lens of settler societies such as Australia and New Zealand, where Europeans made new nations, displacing and outnumbering but never eclipsing native peoples. In this dynamic of dispossession and resistance, visual art has loomed large. Settler artists and designers drew upon Indigenous motifs and styles in their search for distinctive identities. Yet powerful Indigenous art traditions have asserted the presence of First Nations peoples and their claims to place, history and sovereignty. Cultural exchange has been a two-way process, and an unpredictable one: contemporary Indigenous art draws on global contemporary practice, but moves beyond a bland affirmation of hybrid identities to insist on the enduring values and attachment to place of Indigenous peoples.