In the introduction to a blockbuster exhibition of work by Aboriginal artists at the National Gallery in Canberra, a painter called Yaritji Young explains her motivations.
“Our ancestors painted on the caves,” says Young, whose forebears called Australia’s vast southern desert home for thousands of years. “This is where I learnt my story as a child. I think about these caves when I am making a major work. Ours is a big and important country, I need a canvas that will support me to share that.”
