Sovereignty was never ceded: Protest, resistance and resilience with proppaNOW

“…I made a point that if I do a work of art, a picture, a painting, or whatever it is, and I look at it and it makes me feel less than what I actually am, then that work will never leave the studio, or I would never, ever do that work.” – Gordon Hookey, 2023

‘What does it mean to be a contemporary urban Aboriginal artist in Australia today? What changes have art institutions made in the past 20 years relating to Indigenous art and culture? And how do you start a collective? These are just some of the questions and issues yarned about during a lively discussion at the National Art School (NAS) in Sydney with members of the proppaNOW artist collective, which formed in Brisbane in 2003.

NAS is currently showing OCCURRENT AFFAIR, which features proppaNOW artists Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Richard Bell, Megan Cope, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and Laurie Nilsen.

Albert, Cope and Hookey, alongside new proppaNOW members Lily Eather and Warraba Weatherall, gathered to talk about the collective, institutional exhibiting, and speaking truth to power.

Dr Stephen Gilchrist from the University of Western Australia chairs the warm yet honest conversation, and began by acknowledging the panel took place on Gadigal land, and paying respects to ancestors of the past, present and future.’