Revisions: made by the Warlpiri of Central Australia and Patrick Waterhouse

“When white explorers created their maps, they dissected this land with arbitrary lines and imposed state borders. They didn’t understand the diversity of nations and tribal people inhabiting this country. They did not know of our own stories, songlines, boundaries, and nations. Ancient tribal stories criss-cross all over this continent, tracks of totems belonging to different clans and language groups of the land they called Australia.”
— Otto Jungarrayi Sims (Former Chairman of Warlukurlangu Artists)

Over the past decade, groups of Warlpiri artists in Central Australia, working in collaboration with British artist Patrick Waterhouse, have revised a collection of maps, flags, photographs, comic illustrations and other archival material. The resulting works amend assumptions inscribed in these documents, address what is missing from the historical record, and give voice to stories passed down from generation to generation by the original custodians of the land.

A collection from these works, Revisions: made by the Warlpiri of Central Australia and Patrick Waterhouse opens at Agency Projects in September, and runs until 10 October 2026. Curated at the Warlukurlangu Art Centres in Yuendumu and Nyirripi with artists, families and community members, the exhibition brings together works on paper, photographs, moving images and archival material.

The project began when Waterhouse travelled to Warlpiri Country with a growing archive of historical materials collected over many years, along with photographs he had made while working in Central Australia. Shared with artists, families and community members, these documents became a ground for response. Warlpiri artists of different generations reworked the materials in their own ways—dot painting across maps, layering patterns onto photographs, inscribing symbols into flags and records—bringing community knowledge and lived experience to the surface.

The works can be read as revision, defacement or revelation, each one reflecting a meeting of archive and community, Country and record. The exhibition includes a showing of the award-winning documentary Making Revisions, which shares the story of the collaboration.

Revisions is presented in partnership with Warlukurlangu Artists, with generous support from the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program.