This is both a document on the development of photography and a record of the growth of a nation . It covers 150 yrs of Australia photography - 1847-2000 - from traditional to contemporary.

The National Gallery of Australia holds the largest collection of Australian Indigenous art in the world. Written by Indigenous authors and curators and other experts in the field, this new book features works of art which highlight the diversity, richness and excellence of the Gallery's collection. They range from rare 19th-century objects, historical and contemporary bark paintings, fabrics, dance masks, and headdresses to contemporary politically charged works by artist working in towns and cities in the 21st century. Frachesco Cubillo is a member of the Larrakia, Bardi, Wadaman, and Yanuwa Nations. She is senior curator Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the National Gallery of Australia. Wally Caruana is an independent curator, author, and consultant on Indigenous Australian art.

This publication brings together existing research as well as new data to show how Arnhem Land bark painting was critical in the making of Indigenous Australian contemporary art and the self-determination agendas of Indigenous Australians. It identifies how, when and what the shifts in the reception of the art were, especially as they occurred within institutional exhibition displays. Despite key studies already being published on the reception of Aboriginal art in this area, the overall process is not well known or always considered, while the focus has tended to be placed on Western Desert acrylic paintings. This text, however represents a refocus, and addresses this more fully by integrating Arnhem Land bark painting into the contemporary history of Aboriginal art. The trajectory moves from its understanding as a form of ethnographic art, to seeing it as conceptual art and appreciating it for its cultural agency and contemporaneity.

"This publication accompanies the exhibition Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 5 through September 18, 2016."

Bringing together works by 30 contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across the country, Defying Empire commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum that recognized Aboriginal people as Australians for the first time. It explores the strength and resilience of Australia's Indigenous people since first contact, through the historical fight for recognition and ongoing activism in the present day. This moving and powerful art touches on the issues of identity, racism, displacement, country, nuclear testing, sovereignty and the stolen generations through many media: painting on canvas and bark, weaving and sculpture, new media, prints, photography, metalwork and glasswork. 'We defy: By existing; By determining our identity; By asserting our histories; our culture; our language; By telling our stories, our way; By being one of the oldest continuous living cultures in the world.' - Tina Baum, NGA Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria" is a major overview of the work of Indigenous artists of the past 130 years. Entries on more than 100 works in the NGV¿s collection reveal the influence of early Indigenous objects on contemporary dialogues; explain systems of representation in Indigenous art; and reveal the ways artists have responded to change and have incorporated new aesthetic principles and artistic concepts, images and imaginaries over time. Through visual analysis, readers gain an understanding of preoccupations with place, ceremony, identity and race in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. This beautifully illustrated publication identifies similarities in artistic perception across time and place, and disrupts prevailing binaries of centre and periphery, traditional and contemporary, and urban and non-urban modes of representation and identification.