WEAVING WORLDS AND IMAGINING FUTURES: FIRST NATIONS ARTISTS AT APT10 – TAASA Review March 2022

Abigail Bernal T he vitality and relevance of artistic practice from First Nations artists and communities across Asia, the Pacific and Australia is celebrated in APT10.

Alongside indigenous artists from India, Nepal, Australia and the Philippines, specific focus projects explore the contemporary art of the Atayal, Amis, Paiwan and Truku people of Taiwan; the Uramat Mugas (stories) of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and the ongoing dialogues and creative relationships between Macassans from Indonesia and Yolgnu people of Yirrkala, Australia.

A major strand of the exhibition reflects the ways in which Indigenous contemporary art can express communal and collective identity, enable artists to revive and innovate customary practices and reconfigure our understanding of the past, present and future. Weaving traditional knowledge and culture with futuristic ideas and settings is a way for artists like Subash Thebe Limbu to critique and dismantle damaging legacies and ingrained prejudices, and to suggest a way forward...