Ngura Puḻka finally opens in Canberra, centring APY Lands stories after three-year delay

A major First Nations exhibition featuring 30 large-scale works from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and beyond has opened at the National Gallery of Australia, ending a three-year wait shaped by scrutiny over authenticity and authorship in the Indigenous art market.

Ngura Puḻka – Epic Country brings together paintings created through the APY Art Centre Collective, a network of art centres spanning remote communities in north-west South Australia, as well as artists working in Coober Pedy and Adelaide. The exhibition includes 30 works by 49 artists, many on a monumental three-by-three-metre scale, and will run for 19 weeks until 23 August.

For Yankunytjatjara artist Sandra Pumani, who is also chair of the APY Art Centre Collective, the opening is a chance to share lived connection to Country with audiences in Canberra. Ms Pumani said: “I look back, it was really precious that I’ve experienced so much in that life, growing up in a beautiful place.”

The show was originally due to open in mid-2023 but was postponed after allegations published in The Australian claimed non-Aboriginal studio assistants had interfered with works credited to Aboriginal artists. The National Gallery commissioned an independent review into the provenance of 28 paintings, and later said the works met its standards. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also discontinued its investigation into the claims, citing the gallery’s independent report and finding no breaches of consumer law.

Ngura Puḻka has been described as one of the most scrutinised exhibitions in recent Australian art history – a controversy that, for many artists, has overshadowed the paintings themselves. The works depict desert Country and Aṉangu tjukurpa (ancestral stories and cultural law) including depictions tied to the Seven Sisters narrative, waterholes and underground places associated with Country.

The APY Art Centre Collective has launched a defamation case in South Australia’s Supreme Court seeking $4.4 million in damages from Nationwide News, publisher of The Australian, and journalist Greg Bearup. The National Gallery had previously planned to acquire the 28 original works, but that deal was called off after the allegations emerged; the paintings are now expected to return to artists after the exhibition closes.

While the dispute has moved into the courts, the opening reframes the public conversation around what the artists say matters most: cultural authority, story and connection. The National Gallery’s director has described the APY Lands as home to about 2,000 people across 20 communities, with more than 500 artists – one of the most concentrated art-making regions in the world.

For audiences, Ngura Puḻka offers a rare, large-scale encounter with contemporary Aṉangu art on its own terms – with the artists, their families and their communities at the centre of the story.