The Potter Museum of Art Announces Artists & Commissions for 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art

The Potter Museum of Art, the flagship art museum of the University of Melbourne, has announced the full list of artists and details of the six new commissions for its re-opening exhibition, 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art.

The exhibition will open at the revitalised Museum during Reconciliation Week on 30 May 2025 and run until 23 November 2025.

65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art celebrates the brilliance and beauty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art while confronting the dark heart of Australia’s colonial history.

Curated by Associate Provost and Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton AO, Senior Curator Judith Ryan AM, and Associate Curator Shanysa McConville — in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and custodians of art traditions — the exhibition explores the recognition of Indigenous art and its rise to prominence globally.

The enduring significance of Indigenous cultural and design traditions, knowledge, and agency is revealed in the spectacular curation of 450 works, 400 of which are from the first peoples of Australia.

Rarely seen works of art and cultural objects

The exhibition includes rarely seen works of art and cultural objects from the University of Melbourne’s collections alongside 193 important loans from 77 public and private lenders. It features work by groundbreaking artists such as William Barak, Lin Onus, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Albert Namatjira, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, Emily Kam Kngwarray, Trevor Nickolls, Destiny Deacon, Yhonnie Scarce, Rover Thomas, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Woŋgu Munuŋgurr, Minimini Numalkiyiya Mamarika, Ricky Maynard and Julie Gough.

“The ironic title of this exhibition refers to the belated and reluctant acceptance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art into the fine art canon by Australian curators, collectors, art critics and historians in the last quarter of the 20th century,” said Professor Marcia Langton.

“65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art celebrates Indigenous art as it is increasingly recognised in galleries and collections around the world – as the greatest single revolution in Australian art.”

Six new commissions by leading contemporary Indigenous artists will be unveiled. They are:

• Brett Leavy (Kooma) – Virtual Narrm 1834, 2025: A photo-realistic animation transporting audiences into the lands and waterways of the Wurundjeri people as they were in 1834, created in collaboration with Wurundjeri elders. Part of the artist’s Virtual Songlines project.
• Julie Gough (Trawlwoolway): A new video work and installation examining the widespread reproduction of plaster busts of Nununi leaders Wurati and Trukanini, first modelled in 1834–1835. The work will be shown in storage crates alongside a video response, addressing the global dispersal of these ancestral representations.
• Betty Muffler and Maringka Burton (Aṉangu) – Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country), 2022: A 5-metre-long painting created by two respected ngangkari (traditional healers), referencing each artist’s ngura (country) and healing powers. The work responds to the trauma of British atomic testing at Maralinga and Emu Field in the 1950s.
• Lorraine Connelly-Northey: Three monumental freestanding narrbong (bush bags) made using discarded post-industrial materials. The works reflect her connection to Wadi Wadi and Wamba Wamba terrain, south of her mother’s Waradgerie country.
• Sandra Aitken (Dhauwurd Wurrung Gunditjmara) – Gnarraban (eel trap): A large woven sculpture based on traditional fish trapping systems used by the artist’s kin for thousands of years. Aitken learned to weave from her aunt Connie Hart, who revived this nearly lost practice.
• Vicki West (Senior Trawlwoolway): Bull kelp water carriers and woven baskets made from river reed and white iris. West honours traditional forms and processes, becoming Australia’s leading practitioner working with kalikina (bull kelp).

“As this exhibition, 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art will show, since the nineteenth century the University has amassed an extraordinary collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art,” said Professor Emma Johnston AO, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne.

“While many of the artworks shine with the cultural richness of the first peoples, there are also works that engage us in truth-telling and profoundly challenge the legacy of the University’s collections and academic practices.

“Alongside Vol 1 of Dhoombak Goobgoowana: A History of Indigenous Australia, this exhibition is an important exercise in truth-telling for the University, including histories of scientific racism, and the collecting of ancestral remains. It will provide a vital platform for Indigenous storytelling and encourage dialogue about the importance of Indigenous culture, history and art for the nation as well as the University community.”

“This exhibition bears testament to 65,000 years of knowledge,” said curators Judith Ryan and Shanysa McConville.

“It encompasses an extraordinary range of artists and works of art that serve as a conceptual map, illustrating our contested shared history and introducing us to some of the Indigenous architects of change. By revealing key moments and turning points in the history of Indigenous art in Australia, we explore diverse art traditions across communities and regions, art forms that emerged post-colonisation, and artistic resistance and innovation.”

Since 1853, the University has collected works of art, cultural objects and records that form a profoundly important archive, and for the first time these Indigenous collections will be exhibited together and interpreted by authoritative Indigenous scholars and other leading experts.”

Extensive Redevelopment for The Potter Museum of Art

The Museum has undergone extensive redevelopment by Wood Marsh Architects and now features a striking new entrance on the University’s campus. The renewed building includes enhanced spaces for the Museum’s leading collection-based learning programs, made possible with support from The Ian Potter Foundation and Lady Primrose Potter AC.

The exhibition is made possible by the generosity of Principal Supporters Peter McMullin AM and Ruth McMullin, Leadership Supporters Peter Jopling AM KC, the Erica Foundation, Creative Australia and Creative Victoria, Foundational Supporters Andy and Rainie Zhang and the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, and Supporters Judith and Leon Gorr, Rebecca Hossack, John and Susan Wardle, Her Honour Irene Lawson and Brendan Kissane KC. The Gordon Darling Foundation is Publication Partner.

University of Melbourne’s signature Ngarrngga Project

Running alongside the exhibition is a significant new educational initiative that will create resources for both school and tertiary students and teachers to build a deeper understanding of Indigenous art, history and culture. These curriculum-focused resources will continue to be available beyond the life of the exhibition.

The initiative is developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s signature Ngarrngga Project, which builds innovative curriculum resources in collaboration with Indigenous Knowledge Experts. Ngarrngga is led by Professor Melitta Hogarth, Director and Associate Dean (Indigenous) in the Faculty of Education, in conjunction with Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton AO, Professor Aaron Corn, Director of the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, and Professor Jim Watterston, Dean of the Faculty of Education.

Comprehensive publication also titled 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art

The University of Melbourne, with Thames & Hudson, has released a comprehensive publication also titled 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art. Featuring new writing by 25 leading thinkers across generations and disciplines, the book further examines the history of Indigenous art across time and space. It is edited by Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton and Senior Curator Judith Ryan.

All-new destination restaurant – Residence

Located at The Potter, an all-new destination restaurant, Residence, will open in winter 2025. Co-founded by hospitality leaders Nathen Doyle (Sunhands, Heartattack and Vine, Wide Open Road) and Cameron Earl (Carlton Wine Room, Embla, ST. Ali), Residence will operate day to night and feature an annual ‘Chef in Residence’ program offering chefs the opportunity to realise their own restaurant concepts from vision to reality.

More information: potter-museum.unimelb.edu.au