'Floating Life' highlights the importance of fibre within Aboriginal culture, and the Gallery's unique collection of more than 300 fibre objects. Included are commissioned pieces by key artists as well as acquisitions from established and emerging talents. There are woven fibre pieces, three-dimensional works with connections to the objects, and paintings illustrating processes and stitches used.

Banumbirr (the Morning Star), water, and the notion of movement through time and place are major themes. Water defines pathways and points of connection in Aboriginal life and marks important creation sites associated with specific woven objects. Spirit figures, ceremonial poles, dance objects, body adornment and useful nets and traps — ranging from small and delicate to large-scale — reflect variations on tradition, whereas exciting contemporary explorations are embodied in the found materials used by Lorraine Connelly-Northey. An in-depth view of the work of artists such as Jonathan Jones, Gulumbu Yunupingu, Shirley MacNamara, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Lena Yarinkura and Alan Griffiths recognises their role in forging important new directions.