Myth in transition

1 November 2006 – 10 April 2007

In Australian Indigenous cultures, myth takes the form of narratives explaining nature, customs and value systems. Indigenous communities use art as a way to represent myth, and tell stories of Dreamings or beliefs that pertain to their particular Country.
 
Country is a concept that is intrinsic to an Indigenous person’s sense of being. Ancestral heritage and traditional rights of ownership are bound together, with Country demonstrating the nature of existence between particular people and a particular place. Ancestral figures of the Dreaming are also seen to remain within the landscape’s geophysical form, and are the present generation’s physical link with their past. Australian Indigenous mythology is fundamentally linked to Country: the stories explain why people belong to a particular place; the myths explain the essence of Country—land and identity are inseparable. 
  
The exhibition Myth in transition draws together art and artefacts from The University of Queensland’s collections held by the University Art Museum, Anthropology Museum, and Fryer Library.
 
This curatorial project has been undertaken by Art History students of the Curatorial Practice and Theory subject, supervised by Dr Sally Butler. The student curators were Cherise Asmah, Christine Burton, Janaya Cassidy, Sally Croagh, and Sushma Griffin.