Art regions
Aboriginal Australia is not one culture but hundreds, each with its own language, law and country. The differences you can see between these regions — in materials, in structure, in colour — are differences of place and of tradition, not of fashion. Choose a region to see the works we currently hold from that country.
Central Desert
Alice Springs, Papunya, Utopia and YuendumuThe country where contemporary Aboriginal painting on canvas began, and where Dreaming narratives are mapped as if seen from above…
78 works available ›
Arnhem Land
Yirrkala, Maningrida, Gunbalanya and the Top EndBark painting, larrakitj poles and the fine cross-hatching known as rarrk — one of the oldest continuous art traditions on earth.
Read about this region ›
The Tiwi Islands
Bathurst and Melville IslandsA visual language of its own — geometric, carved and unmistakably Tiwi, developed in island isolation north of Darwin.
1 work available ›
East Kimberley
Warmun, Kununurra and the Gija countryEarth pigments ground from the country itself, laid down in broad planes of ochre, charcoal and pink.
2 works available ›
West Kimberley
Fitzroy Crossing, Balgo and the desert edgeWhere desert meets river country — luminous colour, layered surfaces and Wandjina traditions.
16 works available ›
Western Desert
Kintore, Kiwirrkurra, Warakurna and the LandsSonglines carried across enormous distances, painted with an authority that comes straight from ceremony.
Read about this region ›
Katherine
Katherine Gorge, Katherine Hot Springs, Nitmiluk National Park, Cutta Cutta CavesA vibrant Northern Territory town surrounded by spectacular gorges, rivers, waterfalls, thermal springs and rich Aboriginal cultur…
8 works available ›A note on reading these works
Much Aboriginal painting is not a picture of a landscape as it looks from the ground. It is more often a map of country as it is known and travelled — waterholes, soakages, dunes, the routes ancestral beings took, and the ceremonies that belong to those places.
What is shown publicly is always only part of the story. Senior artists paint an outer version that can be shared, while the deeper layer of meaning stays within the community and within ceremony. When a story on this site seems short, that is usually why — and it is a boundary worth respecting rather than pushing against.