Poignant artworks ponder history of Australia

THE must-see exhibition at the moment is the survey of Australia’s First Peoples art at National Gallery Singapore, the largest exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art to travel to Asia. 

It is a powerful and haunting show that is both a monument to the vitality and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – and a memorial to all that’s been lost through a century of European colonisation.

Strolling through the exhibition spread over several rooms, the visitor is overcome by strong emotions. The first is joy in sampling the rich cultures, traditions, landscapes, ceremonies and iconographies of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; the second is anguish at the violent history of colonisation that allowed the “founding fathers” of Australia to declare the land theirs, and subsequently oppress, marginalise and destroy these centuries-old cultures.