The National Gallery of Australia has officially opened 'Ngura Puḻka — Epic Country,' a landmark exhibition featuring 30 large-scale paintings by 49 First Nations artists from the APY Lands. The show, which features works predominantly measuring three-by-three meters, highlights the Tjukurpa (lore and ceremony) of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara regions. The opening follows a significant three-year delay caused by an independent investigation into allegations of improper interference by non-Indigenous staff.
This exhibition is a critical milestone for the National Gallery as it seeks to move past the 'white hands on black art' controversy that threatened the integrity of the APY Art Centre Collective. By proceeding with the show, the gallery and the artists are asserting 100 percent Indigenous authorship and reclaiming the narrative surrounding their cultural production. The scale and collaborative nature of the works underscore the enduring power of First Nations storytelling and its central place in Australia’s national identity.