Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu

Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu challenged the perception of First Nations art through a display of diverse body of work from across Wiradjuri Country.

It featured existing work and commissions by five of Australia's leading National and International Wiradjuri artists: Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Jonathan Jones, Brook Andrew, Karla Dickens and Nicole Foreshew.

As MAMA’s opening exhibition ,Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu announced the Museum's identity. MAMA celebrates and stands proud of Wiradjuri Country, community and culture, putting them at the forefront of its cultural presentation. As MAMA’s doors open for the first time, Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu enabled us to come together to consider place and Country, where and why we stand here today, and to honour the site on which MAMA sits.

Connected through a kinship stemming back to the first people of our nation, each of the artists in Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu was a keeper of knowledge, passed down through both tangible and intangible means, that informed both their contemporary art practices and themselves personally. Each artist drew on narratives from their ancient culture, translating them into visual forms materialised through contemporary mediums.

The exhibition reflected both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous interpretations of place and country; themes that are repeated in the works of contemporary Wiradjuri artists. Wiradjuri Ngurambanggu determined that the broader regional community can participate in a level of cultural awareness that is an immersion into Wiradjuri expressions, ways of life and the perspectives of one who is Wiradjuri in a contemporary world.