'As Aboriginal peoples, we honour Country as our mother.

Aboriginal people speak about Country in the same way that non-Aboriginal people might talk about their living human relatives. We cry about Country, we worry for Country, we listen to Country, we visit Country and we long for Country.

The term ‘Country’ is all-encompassing and includes the land, sea, sky and everything contained therein.

Most of the paintings in this display are by artists from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands who live in communities across the northwest of South Australia. Also included are two impressive large scale collaborative paintings, one painted by men and the other by women artists known collectively as the Spinifex Arts Project. These artists are also Pitjantjatjara people, who were relocated to Western Australia from Maralinga, Emu Junction and other locations in South Australia during the atomic bomb testing on their sacred land during the 1950s.

Through all the paintings the artists are expressing their Tjukurrpa, cultural stories and law that communicate their profound, ongoing relationship with tracts of Country and each other. Physical features of the land are depicted and celebrated as well as associated songs and performances that empower Aṉangu people to be connected to each other and to Country through social networks.

The powerful stories that each of these paintings reveals shares with us the importance of upholding and deeply respecting Country. Through their paintings each artist asserts their rights as traditional owners of land, sea and sky.'

- Nici Cumpston (Barkandji people) Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Artistic Director, Tarnanthi