Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander art
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have existed on the continent of Australia for tens of thousands of years. Their art and traditions are among the oldest and richest in human history.
The designs, patterns and stories were taught to Indigenous Australians by the Ancestors and are reinforced and replicated through ritual, dance, song, body painting, rock engravings and paintings, and on domestic and ritual objects. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is as alive today as it was thousands of years ago. As in the ancient past, the art is inseparable from everyday life.
The art of contemporary Indigenous Australians takes many forms. Despite significant change and diversity, the art retains an underlying unity of inspiration—the land and the peoples’ relationships with it. It is simultaneously connected to the past and engaged with the present, engaging with the world through actions which are lively, positive, political, social and creative.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection at the National Gallery of Australia comprises over 7500 works and is the largest in the world. These dedicated gallery spaces allow much more of the collection to be seen with each one specifically designed for a different geographic region or aspect of Indigenous art and, where possible, paintings and sculptures are illuminated overhead by natural daylight, akin to the light in which the works were created.
This dedicated display of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art highlights the diversity, richness and excellence of the collection.
Further detailed information about the collection will be added shortly.
New acquisitions
General links
- Wesfarmers Arts Indigenous Fellowship
- Albert Namatjira In the Artist's Footsteps
Special focus sites
Publications
- Michael Riley: sights unseen 2006
- Aboriginal art in modern worlds 2000
- Keeping culture: Aboriginal art to keeping places and cultural centres, 2000
- The painters of the Wagilag sisters story, 1937-1997 Wally Caruana and Nigel Lendon, editors, 1997
- The eye of the storm : eight contemporary indigenous Australian artists, 1996
Related exhibition sites
- Aboriginal art in modern worlds
- Emily Kame Kngwarreye: Alhalkere:
paintings from Utopia - From little things big things grow
- Keeping culture
- Islands in the sun: prints by indigenous artists of Australia and the Australasian region
- Michael Riley: sights unseen
- National Indigenous Art Triennial 07: culture warriors
- National Indigenous Art Triennial 12: unDisclosed
- No ordinary place: the art of David Malangi
- Re-take, contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander photography
- Seeing the centre: the art of Albert Namatjira
- Tactility: two centuries of indigenous objects, textiles and fibre
- World of Dreaming
Indigenous arts charter
In February 2010, the National Gallery of Australia has adopted the Indigenous Australian Art Charter of Principles for Publicly Funded Collecting Institutions (Charter) 2009.
In accepting the Charter’s principles for the acquiring, commissioning and de-accessioning of Indigenous works or art, the National Gallery of Australia will develop and refine existing policies and procedures towards best practice.
Progress on the Charter will be documented in the Gallery’s Annual Report
Image above:
Ramingining Artists
The Aboriginal Memorial 1987–88
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Purchased with the assistance of funds from National Gallery admission charges and commissioned in 1987
The Aboriginal Memorial consists of 200 hollow log coffins from central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and is one of the most significant Indigenous works of art in the Gallery’s history.
Made in the 1800s, these works of art are a testament to the expertise, rich cultural knowledge and ingenuity of their creators.
During the period 1971–74, a new and dynamic painting movement emerged from the Aboriginal community of Papunya in central Australia.
The Desert Painting movement has developed into a dynamic arts industry since its modest beginnings in Papunya during the early 1970s.
Albert Namatjira was the first Aboriginal artist to be recognised within a wider Western art tradition. His watercolours have become synonymous with central Australia.
The Kimberley region of Western Australia is renowned for the Wandjina figures painted on rock walls, a tradition dating back thousands of years.
Batik and printed textiles are an important art form and are highly regarded. These fine woven fibre works are made for both functional and decorative purposes.
Rich paintings have existed in the Arnhem Land region for tens of thousands of years. Most prominent are found on rock surfaces in the escarpment country in western Arnhem Land.
Indigenous Australians have used European art materials from the earliest days of European settlement. Many of these drawings feature images found in traditional body painting and rock engravings.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is political, and the work of urban-based artists engages with issues in intellectual, provocative and often humorous ways that can be confronting or more subtle.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have been using photomedia to make statements about Indigenous identity, history and representation for many years.
The art from far north Queensland celebrates ancient traditions in the contemporary forms of painting, sculpture and ceramics. 
The art from the Torres Strait Islands is stylistically distinct from that of mainland Aboriginal Australia.