CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/1/2025

'The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art'—alive and in the present

“For many First Nations people, both in Australia and around the world, the past is not something distant or inaccessible,” curator and editor Myles Russell-Cook writes in new release, The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art; “instead, it is intricately woven into our present reality. Time is a cycle in which interactions within Ancestral realms continue to influence the culture of the contemporary era. This understanding allows Indigenous peoples to maintain a deep connection with heritage and tradition, ensuring that history remains very much alive and in the present.” Published to accompany the major traveling exhibition of Australian Indigenous art that opens at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, in October 2025, this 320-page hardcover spans from the late nineteenth century to today, and includes more than 200 artworks. Featuring striking black paper edges and a fold-out map of Indigenous Australia at the back, it reproduces work by more than 130 artists, including Wakartu Cory Surprise, Alik Tipoti and Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul, whose work is shown in detail here, from top to bottom.