A group of Yolngu elders and artists have travelled from Arnhem Land to regional New South Wales -- to open an art exhibition featuring 140 works on display. Mixing ancient traditions with contemporary practice, the artists have created new colour palettes to depict sacred connections to land, sky, and sea. At the heart of their work, lies one consistent message.
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00:00 The Gadigal Morang dancers are welcoming Yolngu people to Dharawal country, two hours south
00:09 of Sydney, to open the Miwot Yolngu Art Exhibition, depicted as songlines in the land, sky and
00:17 sea.
00:18 According to Yolngu law, materials must be sourced from the land, like ochre and bark.
00:23 But as the homelands change, so is the craft.
00:27 There have been a lot of introduction of foreign things such as metal and ink, paints.
00:33 We are still talking about the same stories that have been happening for millennia.
00:39 There is a consistent message to care for country.
00:41 It's maintaining the land and balancing the ecosystems.
00:45 And that's what government need to do, is to listen to Indigenous peoples of the world.
00:50 Because the world will unbalance, that's what this global warming is.
00:53 A few weeks after the referendum rejection, the Minister for the Arts described this exhibition
00:58 as an opportunity for deep engagement in truth-telling, even if the journey will be longer than expected.
01:04 Some of the stories will be hard, some of the stories will be joyful, but all of them
01:09 need to be told.
01:11 Elders described their grief at the result, but were united.
01:15 Art can be a vehicle for truth-telling.
01:17 We've got to harness whatever methods we can to use politically to get our messages across.
01:26 This is our stories, this is our history, this is us telling who we are.
01:30 It's the Balanda, or the government, that has to sit and listen.
01:34 The exhibition runs until February next year.
01:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]