The Australian High Commission in New Delhi marked National Reconciliation Week on 27 May 2025 by hosting Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route at Triveni Kala Sangam. Developed by the National Museum of Australia in partnership with FORM, a Perth-based arts organisation, the exhibition presents an Indigenous view of the Canning Stock Route, a 1,850-kilometre track cutting through Western Australia’s desert.
Built in the early 20th century for cattle droving, the route crosses lands long cared for by Aboriginal communities. Its creation disrupted traditional water sources and altered social and cultural relationships. The exhibition brings those effects to life through more than 100 artworks by nearly 70 Aboriginal artists, produced during a 2007 journey along the route. Their work conveys stories of movement, dispossession, resilience, and memory.
Included in the project are over 200 oral histories, many recorded in Indigenous languages. Collected during the broader Canning Stock Route Project, these accounts provide a direct record of lived experience, offering context often left out of colonial archives.
The timing of the Delhi event echoed the aims of National Reconciliation Week, observed in Australia from 27 May to 3 June each year, encouraging reflection on shared histories between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
This wasn’t the first time Yiwarra Kuju travelled to India. In 2015, it was exhibited at DLF Place Saket, where its community-led design and careful cultural protocols were noted for setting a respectful precedent for international exhibitions of Indigenous art.
On 8 July 2025, the High Commission referenced the exhibition again, this time during NAIDOC Week, Australia’s annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. The theme for 2025, “Strength, Vision, Legacy,” reflected the same values captured in the stories shared through the exhibition.
By presenting Yiwarra Kuju in India, the High Commission reaffirmed its intention to support and share First Nations voices abroad, using art as both bridge and witness.
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