Yagu Gurlbarl (Big Secret)

ART ON THE MOVE touring exhibition Yagu Gurlbarl (Big Secret) presented a collection of works by renowned artist Julie Dowling. Yagu Garlburl (Big Secret) centered on the theme of slavery of First Nations Peoples in Australia, both in past centuries and in Australian society.

The exhibition presented a series of highly decorated figurative artworks that drew in the viewer. The beauty presented in the works became a metaphor for the resilience and wisdom of First Nations People to overcome the narrow narrative that has mythologised colonisation.

The works in Dowling’s exhibition spoke of these atrocities and how resilient her people are despite this. Between 1800s and 1970s, Aboriginal workers in Australia were enslaved, denied wages that were stolen by corrupt officials and employers and generations of First Nations Australians were locked into a cycle of poverty that still exists today.