Emma Garlett: How Indigenous art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia shapes Aboriginal culture
Often the experience of walking through the Indigenous art section of a major gallery feels like visiting a beautifully preserved time capsule.
We admire the technique and nod our heads thinking it is timeless, as we walk away we often fail to encounter the real person behind the brush.
At the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), curator Carly Lane is currently bridging this clinical disconnect.
The upcoming flagship exhibition I AM is more of a high-stakes manifesto than a standard retrospective.
Watching Lane prepare the gallery is like watching a conductor tune the orchestra for a performance that is both ancient and deeply contemporary.
The main thesis is deceptively simple: Aboriginal art is Aboriginal people.
It sounds obvious, and yet the art world has a persistent habit of “separating the story from the people,” Lane summed up.
We consume aesthetics (the mesmerizing geometry of the Western Desert Tingari cycle or the bold strokes of Tiwi pieces) while conveniently ignoring the biological pulse Lane describes.
These are not just objects; these are expressions of personality.
What makes I AM stand out is that it refuses to be a monolithic greatest hits of Indigenous Australia.
By structuring the exhibition around five main sites while keeping it firmly anchored in Noongar Boodja, Lane forces us to confront the surprising diversity of lived experiences.
The title I AM functions as both a noun and a verb. This is a language attractor. In a country that has historically struggled to see the person behind the pigment, asserting “I AM” is an act of sovereignty.
The exhibition does not shy away from the friction between spirituality and politics.
Tingari paintings are presented not as abstract patterns but as living, breathing layers of power.
Rohin (Dushong) Kickett’s work interrogates the landscape with a visceral, almost forensic intensity. His references to the 1905 Act act like a bullet piercing the canvas, reminding us that history is a memory, not a textbook.
Through Tamesha Williams’ photographs we see that the Aboriginal experience is found in the safety of home as well as in the grand narratives of nationhood.
The doors have been open since February 28. The exhibition serves two different, vital purposes.
For Aboriginal visitors, this place is a mirror; It is a rare space where world views and identities are reflected with the dignity they deserve.
For the rest, this is a request for a change in perspective. Lane doesn’t ask us to just look at the art; He asks us to respond with our whole bodies.
This is a call to accept the full spectrum of existence.
AGWA’s staging of I AM marks a necessary evolution for the organization. He acknowledges a harsh truth: you cannot truly appreciate art without respecting sovereignty and the hand that guides it.
This isn’t just a show; the pulse of life in a place that has been silent for too long.
