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EXCLUSIVE: The APY Art Centre Collective is suing Nationwide News over its ‘white hands on black art’ stories. By Gabriella Coslovich.

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The $4.4 million case against Murdoch

APY artist and director George Cooley.

Credit: Andy Francis

The Aboriginal-owned art collective at the centre of the “white hands on black art” saga is suing the Murdoch-owned Nationwide News over a year-long series of articles published by The Australian that alleged the collective’s white staff routinely interfered with and painted on Indigenous artists’ works. The collective also argues that articles alleged white management had bribed, bullied and abused its member artists.

The Adelaide-based APY Art Centre Collective, which represents more than 500 artists across the vast Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, has launched legal action in the Supreme Court of South Australia, seeking $4.4 million in damages in relation to lost revenue, reputational harm and future economic loss.

“It’s not a revenge thing,” says Coober Pedy-based artist George Cooley, one of the eight directors of the APY ACC board. “It’s an action that’s been very carefully considered … We’ve listened to a lot of advice.”

The damages being sought are almost as high as the record $4.5 million payout to actor and comedian Rebel Wilson in her successful defamation claim against Bauer Media in 2017, later reduced to $600,000 on appeal. Corporations generally can’t sue for defamation, but as a non-profit the APY ACC can litigate.

“There is no precedent whatsoever of a corporate entity claiming damage at that scale, so it’s a big ask,” says Sydney-based lawyer Michael Bradley, managing partner of Marque Lawyers, who is not involved in this case.

“It’s much more difficult for an entity to win a defamation case than an individual,” Bradley says. “If an individual sues and it’s found that they have been defamed, there is an automatic assumption of hurt and loss and they will get damages. Whereas a corporate entity can’t have hurt feelings … it needs to show that it has been hurt in a way that it has suffered an economic loss.

“It’s a big challenge, but if they can prove that that’s the thing that caused them to lose contracts, lose business, et cetera, and it’s that stark, in theory there is no cap on the damages that can be awarded.”

The APY ACC is taking action over 33 articles published in print and online from April 2023 to February 2024. Journalist Greg Bearup, who wrote the bulk of the articles, is being sued in conjunction with Nationwide News. Bearup no longer works for The Australian and is now a senior writer for the Nine Entertainment-owned Australian Financial Review.

Bearup declined to comment on the matter and referred The Saturday Paper to his former employer. A spokesperson for The Australian said: “Over many months, The Australian exposed serious allegations of cultural theft of Indigenous art by white staffers painting substantial sections of Indigenous art work. This included video footage of this occurring. Our reporting sparked the South Australian government to commission an independent investigation into the APYCC which found substantial evidence of wrongdoing in every area investigated. We stand by the reporting and will defend the claim.”

Bearup’s first article, published on April 7, 2023, included stills from a video showing Rosie Palmer, the white manager of the Tjala Arts centre in Amata, South Australia, painting on the canvas of acclaimed senior Indigenous artist Yaritji Young, whose larger paintings sell for about $35,000.

In the edited, 50-second video, published online by The Australian, Palmer is seen surveying Young’s canvas with another white staffer who says, “Could it do with another rock hole there, or is that going to be too circular?”

As The Saturday Paper revealed in February last year, that video was secretly taken by local Indigenous man Richard Marshall and given to one of the APY ACC’s competitors, dealer Chris Simon, owner of Yanda Aboriginal Art on the outskirts of Alice Springs. Simon paid Marshall $1000 for the video and told The Saturday Paper he did so to cover Marshall’s fuel costs for the 500-kilometre journey from Amata to Alice Springs.

In their statement of claim, lawyers for the APY ACC allege the video was taken by Marshall without consent and that Chris Simon, knowing the video would be used in The Australian, gave it to Bearup for that purpose.

The articles published in The Australian prompted a wave of investigations into the APY ACC and indefinitely delayed Ngura Pulka – Epic Country, an exhibition that had been scheduled to open at the National Gallery of Australia in June 2023, as the gallery’s major winter show.

Within weeks of Bearup’s first article, the NGA commissioned an independent investigation into the Ngura Pulka exhibition, headed by Melbourne barrister Colin Golvan and Sydney-based special counsel Shane Simpson. In August 2023, the investigation cleared the 28 paintings in the exhibition, with the reviewers stating: “We strongly reject any implicit or actual suggestion that the Artists have been engaged in any cover-up, abandonment of their cultural obligations or dishonest practice by making false claims of authorship in the Paintings. It has no proper foundation.”

The NGA had intended to buy all 28 paintings in the Ngura Pulka exhibition, for a total of $1,397,000, but withdrew from the commitment following the publication of Bearup’s articles. The artworks remain unsold, although they will be exhibited at the NGA from April to August next year.

The scrapped sale of Ngura Pulka paintings makes up the largest portion of the $3.9 million the collective is claiming in special damages from lost income, second only to state and federal funding cuts estimated at a total of $1.07 million. The collective is further claiming that in the six months following the publication of Bearup’s first article, its sales figures dropped by $84,257 a month, representing a total loss of $505,542.

It also faced the cancellation of international exhibitions, lost contracts with the private sector, was barred from the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and had its membership of the Indigenous Art Code revoked.

In an attempt to counter the stories, the statement of claims says, the collective spent $68,756 on leading public relations firm GRACosway, which specialises in crisis management, and a further $91,872 for advertising and marketing to rebuild client confidence.

“What happened in 2023 deeply affected the artists and community members who felt misrepresented and disrespected,” the collective’s chief executive, Skye O’Meara, tells The Saturday Paper. “The damage was extensive and significant, and our relationships with partners and funding bodies and industry confidence were affected, as was the personal wellbeing of artists, directors and staff. So the damage was enormous.”

Following the NGA’s investigation, the APY ACC faced a further three reviews. A South Australian government-appointed panel was unable to draw any conclusions and did not even deliver a written report. Instead, the panel referred the matter to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and to the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations. The APY ACC was cleared by both.

O’Meara alleges that the organisation was “stitched up by the underbelly of the industry”. She says it is important to Elders that the stories are corrected.

“Anangu are taking a stand here for everyone in the industry as well as for themselves, and it comes back to the truth being of vital importance.”

The APY board waited for all investigations to conclude before proceeding with legal action.

A statement of claim was originally lodged within the legally required 12-month time limit, after which several extensions were granted by the court. Revised claims were served in September and an updated claim was lodged this week.

Asked how the collective could afford to pursue legal action, O’Meara says: “We have come to an agreement with our solicitors and barristers … who are passionate about this issue and who are working with us to make it happen.”

She stresses that the collective will not be drawing on government funds, nor does it have a private backer to fund litigation.

Cooley says amid the media uproar and investigations launched into the APY ACC, “people thought we were going to fold”.

“We proved that false,” he says. “We’re even stronger now. For those that expected another Indigenous organisation to fold, it didn’t happen. We are still here.”

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on November 8, 2025 as "Suing Murdoch".

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