Claire G. Coleman

Blak In-Justice at Heide Museum of Modern Art is at once a devastating indictment of our legal system and a way to connect emotionally to its impact on Indigenous people.

Bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country at Bundanon offers a unique opportunity to see top contemporary Aboriginal artists on Country, in dialogue with the exquisite 19th century drawings of Mickey of Ulladulla.

The Miwatj Yolŋu exhibition at Bundanon is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view this collection of masterworks, which engage with colonial experience and the modern world.

After the shock of the failed referendum, Adelaide’s Tarnanthi 2023 – the biggest display of Aboriginal storytelling in the country – is a counterstrike that repays hatred with love.

“I cried myself to sleep, eventually, in an uncomfortable bed in an Airbnb about 4am on Saturday morning. It was not fear or anxiety; it was not concern or panic about the referendum to come, fear of an uncomfortable result; it was not a reaction to the …”

On a day of national significance in the not-too-distant future, Australians may be invited to reflect on the damaging experience of the 2023 referendum.

A brilliantly curated Rising festival exhibition sets 15 illuminating works by First Nations artists amid the crumbling grandeur of Flinders Street Station’s hidden spaces.

A few years ago I camped with my beloved in Jalmurark Campground, in Mangarayi and Yungman Country in the top end of the Northern Territory, near the property about which We of the Never Never was written by white woman Jeannie Gunn, who lived …

“It’s that special time of the year again, when people talk about reconciliation, treaty, land rights, invasion, colonisation and Australia.”

The winter exhibitions at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art feature epic works that contemplate the urgencies of our time.

“I remember homes, I remember safety, before our government fell, before I went on the run, before the magnate, before they started hunting those of us who resisted. I barely remember how the fall began, how it all ended. All I remember was posters and …”

“It’s January already. Here I am, writing yet another opinion piece about the 26th day of this month, the day on which the nation celebrates the invasion and genocide imposed on my people and my sacred Noongar Country and all other Aboriginal people …”

Alien invasion sci-fi has a strong Australian connection. So it’s a shame that Occupation: Rainfall – a local indie blockbuster that does a lot on a tight budget – is let down by poor screenwriting.

“Most Australian politicians, particularly those in the two major parties, lack the political will to do what the majority support. Instead, they pander to conservative ideologies, driven by the morbid fear of criticism from a small but vocal minority. …”

“The city is performing a disturbingly accurate impression of a ghost town and I am trying to impersonate a dead virus particle haunting it, infecting it; like pneumonia in the lungs of the city, when the ghost of a city has no physical lungs. I walk, …”

A catch-up at an art fair with producer Hooi Ping Angela Flynn.

“No other colonised country celebrates its national day on the anniversary of the day its invasion, colonisation and genocide began. At the very least, January 26 as Australia Day should be understood as disrespectful to First Nations people. When looked …”

A cup of lemongrass tea with the artistic director of Adelaide’s TARNANTHI Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.

An afternoon in the Tantanoola pub, on the trail of a tiger.

Stealing time and cultivating “radical empathy” with artist Robert Walton.

“The difference difference in life expectancy for Indigenous people is 10 years. The target was to close that gap by 2031. The report admits that this critical target is not going to be met; in fact, in the past 10 years, they cannot even claim a one-year …”