00:03A smoking ceremony and a storytelling song and dance
00:10to set the scene for stories of a different kind.
00:13These ones told visually in monumental proportions.
00:17Thirty of the works we have in the exhibition,
00:2029 of them are three by three metres.
00:22You know, they're epic in story, they're epic in scale.
00:25Plans for the exhibition hit an existential hurdle
00:28over a video that appeared to show a non-Aboriginal assistant
00:31helping to paint an artwork.
00:33An investigation by the National Gallery has since disproved that
00:37and confirmed the authenticity of the works,
00:39but the allegations caused a three-year delay.
00:42The artists have 100% authorship of their artworks in this exhibition.
00:46The paintings are rich in personal importance to the artists.
00:50It's about my home. I talk about my home where I grew up.
00:54Now I look back, it was really precious that, you know,
00:58I've experienced so much in that life growing up in a beautiful place.
01:04The artists in the exhibition are showcasing their djukkapa,
01:07or their lore and their ceremony.
01:08We've got seven sister stories of the sky, land stories,
01:12as well as stories about the underground.
01:14So I think audiences will get a real diverse cross-section
01:17of stories from the APY lands.
01:19Stories born from a landscape that's uniquely Australian.
01:22The sediments, the layers of colours on country, you know.
01:27And unlike the other artists, my colleagues,
01:29they've got an aerial view of their artwork.
01:32I've got a front-on view, straight-on view,
01:34but I'm telling the same story.
01:35A celebration of land, country and art.
01:39I'm telling the same story.
01:39You know, you know of all the shrubs that are used in their artwork.
01:40Have you ready?
01:40The next one, the main monument you got.
01:41You're ready, you're ready.
01:42It's called a barefoot.
01:42You're ready.
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