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Aurukun men’s contemporary ceremonial art
Jun 2020 - Nov 2022

Aurukun men’s contemporary ceremonial art depicting a painting. Red-brown background with strong white intersecting lines.

Joe Ngallametta, Kugu-Muminh/Kugu-Uwanh people, Australia 1945-2005 / Thap yongk (Law pole) 2004 / Natural pigments with PVA fixative on linen / 61 x 91cm / Purchased 2005. The Queensland Government's special Centenary Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Estate of the artist

In the early 2000s, senior Wik and Kugu law men from the Aurukun region on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula pioneered a significant contemporary movement: They reimagined their ceremonial visual traditions as contemporary art embodying ancestral narratives and maintaining spiritual and historical connections between the past and present, and fostered intergenerational exchange through their art practices.