Still In My Mind: Gurindji Location, Experience and Visuality

Inspired by the words of revered Indigenous leader Vincent Lingiari, ‘that land ... I still got it on my mind’, this exhibition considers the ongoing impact of the Gurindji Walk-Off, a seminal event in Australian history that continues to resonate today. The Walk-Off, a nine-year act of self-determination that began in 1966 and sparked the national land rights movement, was led by Lingiari along with countrymen and women working at Wave Hill Station (Jinparrak) in the Northern Territory. 

Curated by renowned Indigenous artist, curator and researcher Brenda L Croft in collaboration with the Kalkaringi community, 'Still In My Mind' explores notions of home, community and country connected to the Gurindji Walk-Off. The exhibition incorporates photographs, an experimental video installation, newly commissioned history paintings, contemporary and historical prints and drawings, textiles and found objects, digital platforms and archives, in a richly diverse exhibition that reveals the way Gurindji community members maintain cultural practices and kinship connections to keep this history present.

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Curator
Brenda L Croft

Developed in partnership between UNSW Galleries, UQ Art Museum, UQ and Karungkarni Art and Culture Aboriginal Corporation, with support from Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous Award, National Institute for Experimental Arts, and ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.

Exhibition Program 

Installation view, 'Still in my Mind', UNSW Galleries, 2017. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.

Installation view, 'Still in my Mind', UNSW Galleries, 2017. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.

Installation view, 'Still in my Mind', UNSW Galleries, 2017. Photograph: Silversalt Photography.

Brenda L. Croft Retrac(king) country and (s)kin YEAR. Installation view, 'Still in my Mind', UNSW Galleries, 2017. Photograph: Silversalt Photography

 

Touring Schedule

'Still In My Mind' touring nationally through Artback NT until 2021.

Blue Mountains Culture Centre
Katoomba, NSW
11 July – 23 August 2020

Hervey Bay Regional Gallery 
Pialba, QLD
19 March – 2 May 2021

Drill Hall Gallery 
Canberra, ACT
19 August – 17 October 2021

Public Program
 

Collaboration: from whose perspective and on whose terms?
11.30am Friday 5 May, UNSW Galleries

What is collaboration? This forum centres on inter- and intra-cultural collaboration, which is a representational keystone of 'Still in my mind'. Representatives engaged in 'Still in my mind' discuss their distinct and interlinked roles in the creative-led aspects of this project.

After the Walk-Off: Reflections, dreams and actualities
5.30pm Thursday 29 June, UNSW Galleries

This panel presents Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers' reflections on the Gruindji Walk-Off from Wave Hill station — from the impact of this profound act of Indigenous self-determination had on Australian society fifty years ago, to assessing its relevance for contemporary Indigenous rights activism.