Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (born 1977, Port Kembla, New South Wales) is an artist living and working on Binjerup Noongar Country, on a cattle property in the Peel region. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, he explores the intersections of identity, culture and the natural world. Living and working in an agricultural environment, his practice offers alternative perspectives across diverse, and often disparate communities.  

Abdullah graduated from Curtin University in 2012. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions including Journeys, Linden New Art, Melbourne (2023), Everything is true, John Curtin Gallery, Perth (2021) and In the name, Alaska Projects, Sydney (2015). Recent group exhibitions and projects include Five Acts of Love, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2025); Environment and Desire, Uchiboso Hyakuneng Arts Festival, Chiba, Japan (2024); TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria (2023); Free/State, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2022); and The National, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2019).  

Aziziah Diah Aprilya (born 1997, Makassar, Indonesia), also known as Zizi, is a visual artist, writer, and curator based in Makassar, Indonesia. Her practice spans photography, video, writing, performance, documentary storytelling and urban and ecological research. Through images, text, and collaborative projects, she explores everyday life, urban space, communal memory, and the subtle traces of social and environmental change, often rooted in her hometown. 

Her work has been exhibited and published internationally, including at Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film (Singapore), Soi Books (UK), and SOKONG! Publish (Indonesia). She contributes as a photographer for The Washington Post and Project Multatuli, and her writings and photographs have appeared in anthologies such as Badai Belum Usai (2023), PLAZA 001: Southeast Asian Photography (2023), and Riwayat Gunung & Silsilah Laut (2023). 

Zaenal Beta (born 1960, Makassar, Indonesia) is a celebrated artist, known for pioneering a unique form of painting that uses clay and water in place of conventional pigment. Based in Makassar, his practice transforms local soils into richly textured works that honour the land from which they are made. His subjects draw deeply on the cultural life and landscapes of Sulawesi (including traditional Toraja houses, Pinisi sailing ships, and scenes of rural community) rendered in the natural ochres and earthen tones of his chosen medium. 

Beta has exhibited widely in Indonesia, and his work also held in private collections in Europe and the United States. 

John Bulunbulun (born 1946, Maningrida, Northern Territory; died 2010, Darwin) was a member of the Ganalbingu clan, and one of the most important singers and ceremonial men in the northern part of central Arnhem Land. 

Bulunbulun began painting in the early 1970s, learning traditional techniques from his father and uncle. His first solo exhibition was held at Hogarth Galleries in Sydney in 1981. In 1989, he gained national attention by successfully taking legal action against a Queensland T-shirt manufacturer for illegally reproducing one of his artworks, a landmark case in Aboriginal intellectual property rights. 

Bulunbulun’s artworks are held in several major public collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. In 2001, Bulunbulun won the Bark Painting section of the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. In 2004, he received the Red Ochre Award from the Australia Council for the Arts for lifetime achievement. 

Cian Dayrit (born 1989, Manila, Philippines) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work interrogates colonialism, ethnography, and mythology through textiles, painting, and installation. His practice subverts institutional narratives, such as those found in museums, maps, and monuments, to expose histories of exploitation and displacement.  

Dayrit’s solo exhibitions include Liberties Were Taken, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas (2024); Beyond the God’s Eye, NOME Gallery, Berlin (2019); Busis Ibat Ha Kanayunan, Bellas Artes Projects, Makati City, Philippines (2018); Spectacles of the Third World, Tin-Aw Gallery, Makati, Philippines (2015); and Polycephalous, Art Informal, San Juan City, Philippines (2014). His work has been included in numerous significant group exhibitions, including the Biennale of Sydney (2022); the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020); and the Dhaka Art Summit (2018) and featured at institutions such as the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Taguig. 

Gunybi Ganambarr (born 1973, Yirrkala, Northern Territory) is a Yolŋu artist from the Ŋaymil clan of the Dhuwa moiety, based in Gangan, Northeast Arnhem Land. With a practice bridging Yolŋu cultural knowledge with contemporary forms, Ganambarr is known for pioneering the ‘Found’ movement, integrating industrial materials like aluminium, rubber, and PVC into traditional bark painting, thereby bridging ancestral law with contemporary environmental discourse. 

Ganambarr has received multiple major awards, including First Prize in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. His works are held in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Notable group exhibitions featuring Ganambarr’s work include the forthcoming Biennale of Sydney (2026); The National, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017); and the 8^th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015).  

Guan Wei (born 1957, Beijing, China) is a Chinese-Australian artist renowned for his distinctive blend of Chinese and Australian cultural influences. Working across painting, sculpture and site-specific installation, his reflections upon the human condition engage with critical contemporary issues, including climate change, questions of identity, migration and exile.  

Solo exhibitions of his work include Unexpected Histories, The University of Chicago Center, Beijing (2018); Cosmotheoria, White Box Art Center, Beijing (2017); Guan. Perspective, Scene Sense Art Gallery, Beijing (2017); The Journey to Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2013); and Cloud in the sky, Water in the bottle, Shumu Art Space, Beijing (2010).  

Guan Wei’s work has been included in numerous significant group exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including the  8^th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Museum, China (2010); 10^th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2009);  Handle with Care, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2008); Face Up: Contemporary Art from Australia, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin, (2003–04); Man and Space, 3^rd Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2000) and the 3^rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3), Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1999. 

Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri is a Tiwi artist and cultural advocate from Milikapiti, located on the Tiwi Islands. He is a member of the Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association, an art centre renowned for its rich legacy in contemporary Tiwi art since 1989. Heenan-Purunatameri’s work reflects the evolving expressions of Tiwi culture, encompassing traditional practices and contemporary mediums. 

Heenan-Purunatameri has been involved in collaborative projects including Wurrungura – Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, a four-channel video work featured in The National 4: Australian Art Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney in 2023. In 2024, he co-curated the exhibition In Relation, with Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni, at Agency Projects, Melbourne, in partnership with Jilamara Arts & Crafts. 

Michelle Woody Minnipinni (born 1972, Melville Island, Northern Territory) is a Tiwi artist whose work reflects a deep connection to her Country and cultural heritage. Her practice incorporates traditional Tiwi techniques, including the use of natural ochres and the pwoja (ironwood comb) to depict creation stories and representations of her homeland. 

In 2020, Michelle won the King & Wood Mallesons Contemporary First Nations Art Award. Solo exhibitions include Ngiya Murrakupupuni (My Country), STATION Gallery, Sydney (2025) and In Relation, Agency Projects, Melbourne, in partnership with Jilamara Arts & Crafts (2024). Her work is held in various public and private collections around Australia. 

Karrabing Film Collective (established 2013, Northern Territory) are an Indigenous media group who use filmmaking to interrogate the conditions of inequality for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and retain connections to land and their ancestors. Together they have sought to create a model for Indigenous filmmaking and activism, by bringing together different tribes and languages, conceiving works through an infrastructure of communal thinking and experimentation, and seamlessly blending fiction and documentary traditions. 

The Karrabing Film Collective have participated in numerous exhibitions and screenings worldwide, including at Goldsmiths CCA, London (2023-24); Secession, Vienna (2023); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2023); MoMA PS1, New York (2019); documenta 14, Kassel (2017); and Jakarta Biennale (2017).  

Abdi Karya (born 1982, Sengkang, Indonesia) is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural programmer known for his performance-based works and installations that explore collective memories within various social, political and cultural contexts. Drawing inspiration from his Sulawesi roots and heritage, he employs voice, objects and text in his creations. 

Karya has presented his work at notable venues including the Watermill Center, New York; the Colombo International Theatre Festival; the Jakarta Theatre Platform; ARTJOG, Yogyakarta; and the Jakarta Biennale. In 2019, he toured his show Story of a Wanderer at the Castlemaine State Festival in Victoria, and was involved in curating Baine/Bayini, a Yolngu-Makassan commission, for the 10^th Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art (APT10) at Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane in 2021. 

Jenna Lee (born 1982, Canberra) is a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman, and KarraJarri woman with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Anglo-Australian (Irish and Scottish) ancestry. Lee’s practice centres on exploring language, materiality, and the transformation of inherited narratives. Deeply intrigued by what is lost in translation, Lee explores the spaces between words—the felt but unseen—capturing the subtleties that surround language. Her work channels these overlooked nuances into immersive installations, works on paper, sculpture, and multimedia. 

Lee’s practice has been recognised through numerous awards, including the 2024 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, the 2023 Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (Emerging Artist), the 2023 Australian Book Design Association Award for Emerging Designer, the 2020 Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award (NATSIAA), and the 2019 Dreaming Award (National Indigenous Art Award, Australia Council). She has also been a finalist in major prizes such as the 2024 Wynne Prize, the 68th Blake Art Prize, and the National Works on Paper Prize. 

Lee’s work has been showcased in national and international institutions, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria; and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.  

Dhambit Munuŋgurr (born 1968, Yirrkala, Northern Territory) is a Yolŋu artist from the Gupa-Djapu clan of Northeast Arnhem Land. Munuŋgurr’s work often intertwines personal experiences with ancestral stories, exploring themes of identity, healing, and social justice. 

Following a car accident in 2007, Munuŋgurr began to mix ochre with acrylic paint to overcome the physical difficulty of grinding ochre by hand. Consequently, she has defined her practice by the vibrant use of a non-traditional cobalt blue colour, coupled with her spontaneous mark-marking – often painting with a Marwat (traditional Yolŋu hairbrush), using her non-preferred left hand. 

Selected solo exhibitions include The Earth is Blue: The Art of Dhambit Munuŋgurr, Australian Embassy Gallery, Paris, France (2024); Can We All Have a Happy Life, as part of the NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2020); and Dhambit Munuŋgurr, Salon Project Space, Darwin (2019). Her work has been included in several notable group exhibitions, among them Yolnu power: the art of Yirrkala, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2025); 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne (2025); Under the Big Blue Sky, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney (2025); Desert + Coast, Salon94, New York (2024); and Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2021-22).  

Ipeh Nur (born 1993, Yogyakarta, Indonesia) works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, screen-printing, etching and sculpture. Rooted in traditional Indonesian knowledge systems, Nur’s work investigates the effects of globalisation on historical memory, cultural practices and local narratives. Drawing inspiration from her personal experience of contemporary life, Nur crafts visually rich compositions that feature multiple viewpoints and narratives within a single image. In this way, Nur portrays the complex dynamics at play in our interconnected world. 

Nur graduated from the Indonesia Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta in 2016. She has held several solo exhibitions including Ghosts from the Past, 16 albermarle, Sydney (2023); Menghanyut: Tubuh dan Perjalanan, Soboman 219 Art Space, Yogyakarta (2022); and Salimah, Redbase Foundation, Yogyakarta (2018). She has also participated in several group exhibitions at galleries including including Zone2Source, Amsterdam (2021); Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2020); Cemeti Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta (2017); and Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne, (2017). 

Wilda Yanti Salam is an Indonesian writer, cultural researcher, and social-culture worker, regarded as one of the most vital voices exploring the intersections of food, memory, and community in contemporary Indonesia. Her writing and curatorial practice go beyond the surface of daily life, drawing from the lived experiences of women, youth, and marginalized communities, with food as a lens to reveal the cultural, political, and ecological stories embedded in the everyday. Her most recent work, Kisah Kasih dari Dapur, a reflection on the kitchen as a cultural and political space, affirms her place as a key figure in archiving vernacular knowledge and culinary heritage. Salam is also the Program Director at SIKU Ruang Terpadu in Makassar, a creative space and cultural hub, and has worked with Tanahindie and Makassar Biennale since 2019. 

Darrell Sibosado (born 1966, Port Hedland, Western Australia) is a Bard man from Lombadina, situated on the Dampier Peninsula of the Kimberley coast, Western Australia. His practice explores the innovative potential of the riji (pearl shell) designs within a contemporary context. Passed down over countless generations, the designs represent the detached scales of Aalingoon, the Rainbow Snake, as he rests on the ocean surface, shedding his scales containing traditional knowledge and beliefs. 

Through his printmaking and installations, Sibosado reflects on traditional Bard lore and is intent on reiterating that Aboriginal culture is a living, adaptive culture that undeniably commands a presence in the contemporary space. 

Sibosado’s artwork has gained significant national and international recognition, exhibited at prestigious institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; the Cairns Regional Gallery; and Murray Art Museum, Albury. He was also featured in the 24^th Biennale of Sydney in 2024, a milestone event in his career. His work has been privately commissioned and is part of important public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Fondation Opale, Lens, Switzerland; and Cartier Foundation, Paris, France. 

Vickram  Sombu is a freelance photographer and filmmaker from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. His work has been featured in international festivals, and he is a Panna Future Talents 2024 alumnus who was also selected for the Climate Storytelling workshop in Oxford, England. 

Bulthirrirri Wunuŋmurra (born 1981, Gangan, Northern Territory) is a Yirritja moiety artist from the Dhalwangu clan, hailing from Gangan in East Arnhem Land. She is the daughter, by Yolŋu law, of renowned painter and sculptor Nawurapu Wunuŋmurra, and granddaughter of the esteemed Dhaḻwaŋu clan leader Yaŋgarriny Wunuŋmurra. 

Emerging as a contemporary artist, Bulthirrirri has continued her family’s artistic legacy by creating larrakitj memorial poles, a significant art form from Arnhem Land. Ancient designs and stories are applied to hollow stringybark logs and feature highly patterned designs called miny’tji. Bulthirrirri’s work is distinct for her use of a fine cross-hatching technique, known as rarrk, and for designs and imagery incorporating mythology stemming from dance and song, and tales of the Makassan visiting her ancestral homelands.  

Bulthirrirri’s work has been featured in exhibitions including Spring Group Exhibition, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney (2023); Yirrkala — Next Wave, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide (2022); and By the Stars, Wind & Ocean Currents, The Cross Art Projects, Sydney (2020).  

Mr N. Wunuŋmurra (born 1952, Gurrumuru, Northern Territory; died 2018, Yirrkala, Northern Territory) was a Yolŋu artist from the Dhalwangu clan of Northeast Arnhem Land. The eldest son of renowned artist and clan leader Yaŋgarriny Wunuŋmurra, he was immersed in art from an early age, assisting his father before developing his own distinctive practice and becoming a key figure in the 1990s resurgence of Yolŋu art. 

In 2010, Wunuŋmurra won the inaugural New Media Prize at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards with his film-illuminated Mokuy carvings. His sculptures are held in prominent collections, including the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney and the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Wunuŋmurra’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions including the posthumous exhibition Mokuy, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide (2018) and Burralku: Land of the Spirits, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne (2014). 

Yumutjin Wunuŋmurra (b. 1953 in Gurrumuru, Northern Territory) is a distinguished Yolŋu artist from the Dhalwangu clan of Northeast Arnhem Land. A senior lawman of the Yirritja moiety, he holds significant ceremonial responsibilities, with his art practice also deeply rooted in ancestral law and sacred knowledge.  

Yumutjin Wunuŋmurra’s artworks are held in numerous public and private collections, including that of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.  

Ms D. Yunupiŋu (born c. 1945, Inglis Island, Northern Territory; died 2022, Northern Territory) was a highly respected Yolŋu elder and artist of the Gumatj clan, who lived and worked in Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land. Her paintings, bark works, larrakitj and painted ceramics drew on Yolŋu knowledge of Makassan trading histories and coastal life, and on a personal djotarra (mermaid) story that recurs across her work. 

Despite only commencing painting in 2019, Ms D, Yunupingu achieved significant success in the final years of her life for her art. She was a finalist in both the 2021 and 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, and became the first artist to ever be selected with a portrait on bark as a finalist for the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in 2021. Her work has been featured in major exhibitions including the 24^th Biennale of Sydney (2024); Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2022); and Tarnanthi 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021).  

Professor Rebecca Coates, Monash University Museum of Art 
Amanda Haskard, Monash Museum University of Art 
Dr David Haworth, Monash University, Global Encounters, Senior Research Officer 
Hannah Mathews, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts 
Dr Melanie Oliver, Monash University Museum of Art 
Francis E. Parker, Monash University Museum of Art 
Nurabdiansyah Ramli (Abi), Makassar State University 
Professor Lynette Russell AM, Monash University, Global Encounters Project Lead 
Pierra Van Sparkes, Monash University Museum of Art