Australian Museum Exhibition 'Unsettled' - Featuring Outback Artists

This newly opened exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney has attracted enormous attention and widespread media publicity. In its midst are a number of Aboriginal Artists and Knowledge Holders from and connected to the Outback Arts region, who are promoting Aboriginal culture and truth-telling on a national scale.

Local ceramics artist Uncle Sooty Welsh was delighted when, about a year ago, he was invited to be part of the consultation process leading up to an exhibition which the Museum's CEO Kim McKay has called "the most important show the Museum has ever done in its 194-year history."

More than 100 contributions by First Nations peoples from across the country were received and over 80 significant cultural objects are included in the 'Unsettled' exhibition, along with long-hidden historical documents, large-scale artworks, immersive experiences and never-before-seen objects from the Australian Museum's own collections and beyond.

The exhibition was put together under the direction and guidance of First Nations Curator, Laura McBride, whose father John McBride hails from Coonamble.

John's Bride created a replica camp-style humpy made from tin and remnants salvaged from Tin Town, the camp in the Castlereagh River where the McBrides and many other local Aboriginal families lived in huts they built from kerosene tins and bush timber before local authorities permitted them to live in houses in the Coonamble township in the 1960s.

Another Wailwan connection, Lawrence (Locky) Magick Dennis and his wife Fleur, worked with a team of craftsmen and Elders to create a whole room - a healing and reflection space they called “Winhangadurinya”.

Outback Arts Executive Director Jamie-Lea Trindall and Communications and Touring Coordinator Maddi Ward attended the official launch Friday 21 May and felt privileged and inspired to see Outback Artists at the forefront of telling Aboriginal History.