Powerful First Nations voices challenge colonial frameworks through art
Flinders University Museum of Art has presented Un-Discipline: Blak works from Flinders University Museum of Art, a major exhibition curated with Associate Professor Ali Gumillya Baker that brings together works by leading First Nations artists from the museum’s collection.
The exhibition explores how First Nations artists work beyond and against Western systems of knowledge that seek to categorise, define and control.
The Un-Discipline exhibition – which opened this week and runs until September 18 – reveals ways of knowing and being that are relational, embodied and grounded in continuing connections to Country.
Through art, story, language, memory, archive and activism, the exhibition examines how artists challenge dominant frameworks and create space for alternative understandings of history, identity and belonging.
The concept of “un-discipline” refers to acts of creative sovereignty and methodological refusal—approaches that challenge imposed boundaries and unsettle colonial frameworks while affirming the authority and continuity of First Nations cultures and histories. Rather than rejecting order altogether, the exhibition invites audiences to imagine alternatives to systems that have divided land into property, culture into objects and people into fixed categories.
“Un-Discipline invites audiences to engage with works that challenge the systems and structures that have historically shaped how knowledge, culture and identity are understood,” said Fiona Salmon, Director of Flinders University Museum of Art.
“These artists offer powerful expressions of cultural continuity, resilience and sovereignty, while opening new ways of thinking about history, place and belonging.
“We are proud to present works from the FUMA collection that speak so compellingly to contemporary conversations about truth-telling, self-determination and the ongoing strength of First Nations cultures.”
Un-Discipline features works by Hayley Millar Baker, Richard Bell, The Blak Laundry, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Michael Cook, Selma Nunay Coulthard, Destiny Deacon, Karla Dickens, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Gordon Hookey, Vanessa Inkamala, Peter Japanangka Blacksmith, Danie Mellor, Nancy Naawi, Clinton Naina, Alexander Nganjmirra, Sonya Rankine, Michael Riley, Yhonnie Scarce, Darren Siwes, Uta Uta Tjangala and Judy Watson.
It showcases the breadth, diversity and strength of First Nations artistic practice represented within the Flinders University Museum of Art collection.
Spanning multiple generations, media and cultural perspectives, the exhibition foregrounds artists whose work challenges colonial systems of classification while asserting the continuity, resilience and authority of First Nations knowledge, culture and connection to Country.
A public exhibition launch will be held on July 30, featuring guest speaker Kirstie Parker, a reconciliation advocate and signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
• Tickets for the exhibition launch at 5pm on Thursday 30 July are available from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/fuma-exhibition-launch-tickets-1993298410203
