Australia

Australia is a continent whose Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived there for tens of thousands of years. Their many languages and communities have distinct connections with Country and different traditions of body art.

Body painting, scarification, ornaments and ceremonial dress could transform a person's appearance. Their purpose depended on the community and occasion, rather than on one tradition shared across the continent.

Abel Tasman charted parts of the northern coastline in 1644. European maps used the name New Holland for land already known intimately to its inhabitants.

Cook claimed the eastern coast for Britain in 1770, and British settlement began in 1788. Colonisation brought violence, disease and displacement. The portraits and ceremonies pictured here belong to peoples whose artistic knowledge and identities continue today, despite those profound changes.