Veiled Histories: Works by leading First Nations artists - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri)
UQ Anthropology Museum is pleased to present
Veiled Histories: Works by leading First Nations artists - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri), a national touring exhibition curated by Sunshine Coast’s Regional Gallery at Caloundra in partnership with FireWorks Gallery and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.
Join us for an in-conversation panel discussion followed by the official launch.
4-5 Curatorial panel
5:30-7pm Official Launch
Acceptances only, please register by September 22.
Veiled Histories: Works by leading First Nations artists - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri) is a moving exploration of identity, history and resilience.
The exhibition captures the artists’ enduring careers – from Jennifer’s shields symbolising strength and protection, to Joanne’s distinctive linear patterning expressing her deep spiritual connection to the river.
Together, their art addresses the historical marginalisation of urban First Nations voices – once deemed “ethnographic” and outside dominant cultural narratives – challenging and reshaping Western perceptions of Aboriginal art.
In Queensland, the rise of influential art collectives like Campfire Group (1991–2002) where Jennifer and Joanne first met, ProppaNOW (2003– ), with Jennifer Herd as a founding member, alongside key commercial galleries such as Brisbane’s FireWorks Gallery (1993– ), and the introduction of the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at the Queensland College of Art and Design in 1993, have significantly reshaped the cultural landscape.
These pivotal developments have played a critical role in elevating the visibility of contemporary First Nations artists and their practices while expanding public understanding of First Nations peoples’ experiences.
In developing Veiled Histories, Caloundra Regional Gallery collaborated with Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri) and FireWorks Gallery to source new and earlier works, creating an exhibition that reveals the artists’ evolving practices and personal journeys.
As Dr Sally Butler reflects in the Veiled Histories catalogue:
"Powerfully evocative art urges you to think not only about the subject depicted before you, but also about why art matters in our lives. Veiled Histories is an exhibition bringing together two powerfully evocative artists whose work declares forthright Aboriginal perspectives crafted from their own, often deeply personal, experiences."
Caloundra Regional Gallery Manager and Curator Jo Duke said the exhibition was deeply moving, examining connections to the past for both Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples:
“Throughout the exhibition, embedded within these beautifully visual works, you will discover elements which expose hard truths of first contact and the impact on the First peoples of these lands,” Ms Duke said.
“Jennifer’s works speak of Indigenous experiences, both from the lens of history and the now, of frontier fighting and wars; of traditions lost, revived and shared. While Joanne’s layered works link rediscovered languages and patterns of her Country Maranoa, anchored within the ebbs and flows of the river which drifts across the surface of many of her works.”
“The river, for Joanne, continues to be an important metaphor of constant moving and changing; what is kept and what is lost and what is found.”
Image: Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri), Book river light (diptych), 2010, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 100 x 3cm. Courtesy of the artist and FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane. Photograph by Mick Richards Photography.