Adopted Country Exhibition Opening Event

Western Sydney Creative invites you to attend our Adopted Country Exhibition Opening Night on the Tuesday 11 June at the Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Western Sydney University. 

Adopted Country is the country we connect with when we move away from home. Whether we move due to dispossession, for better life opportunities, or for a new beginning, our adopted Country embraces us, and we embrace it. While our new country doesn’t replace the deep connection we have to our ancestral lands, it is a new landscape and new community that we nurture and love just like it’s our own.

Adopted Country is curated by Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist and curator Dennis Golding and features work from the Western Sydney University’s Indigenous Australian artwork collection.

The term adopted is one often used by Dennis to highlight stories of the Australian diaspora which speak about his own familial history, and for many communities who have migrated to Sydney. The expression also speaks to the actual process of the collecting artwork in which they move across Country to now become adopted and cared for on this new Country.

The artworks included in the exhibition explore the themes of Adopted Country by highlighting artists’ connection to Country and stories of place. Whether artists are speaking from their cultural lineage to Darug, or artists from around the country, they present stories of our lands, waters, and skies.

Together these artworks are markers in time on this land, and present how cultural practices and explorations of identity are shared through contemporary art practices.

Exhibiting artists:

Billy Bain, Dion Beasley, Janice Bruny, Sade Carrington, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Michael Cook Blak Douglas, Fiona Foley, Alice Hinton Bateup, Mabel Juli, Marrirra Marawili, Kukula Mcdonald,

Arone Raymond Meeks, Tommy Minburra, Tracey Moffatt, Balwaldja Munuŋgurr, Clinton Naina, Omborrin, Andrea Pindan, Shirley Purdie, Elaine Russell, Marilyn Russell, Christopher Tobin, Leanne Tobin, Ian Waldron, Aunty Edna Marriong Watson, Leanne Watson, Judy Watson, Barrupu Yunupiŋu, Gulumbu Yunupiŋu and Nancy Gaymala Yunupiŋu

Curator

Dennis Golding

Exhibition details
15 May  – 18 July 2024

Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Whitlam Institute, Building EZ, Western Sydney University, Parramatta South Campus

The Margaret Whitlam Galleries are open to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Opening hours: 10am - 4pm.