The forthcoming exhibition We Were Lost in Our Country, which takes its name from the Tuan Andrew Nguyen film of 2019, tells the story of the Native Title championing Ngurrara Canvas II of 1997, made by Western Desert artists from the Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Mangala and Juwaliny communities and language groups.
Gathering at the Pirnini station near Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley, the group determined that by co-authoring a painting they would be able to prove ownership and long association with the land. Monumental in scale, the painting is effectively a memory map charting 40,000 years of direct connection with the land.
