The last twenty-five years have seen a surge of magnificent images from the many groups of Aboriginal people in Australia. Beginning in Papunya in the Central Desert in the early seventies, painting became for many Aboriginal people a new face, a way to be seen and valued by outsiders. Painting has also become a powerful vehicle for the transmission of a culture: the myths, stories and practices reverenced by particular groups are encoded in the images in paint on boards and canvases to be revealed in layers to those who can see.

This book is about those images, the immediacy of their impact as works of art, their meanings as an expression of the deep and abiding spirituality of the Aboriginal peoples. The images entice, invite and sometimes confront, for they express a way of life and a value system alien to the familiar Western ones. Many are powerful works of art able to stand alongside the great artistic expressions of this century.

Published to coincide with a major exhibition of the same name, curated by Rosemary Crumlin and Anthony Knight.