The Cross Art Projects foregrounds contemporary work and curatorial projects that reflect the multiple relationships between art, life and the public sphere, and explores the boundaries of this context. We are attentive to the local without sacrificing the scope of Indigenous and international views. Cross Art enhances its projects with conversations, walks and events on contemporary art, urban planning, architecture and heritage.
Acknowledgement
We are on Gadigal Land where Sovereignty has never been ceded. Australia always was and always will be, Aboriginal land. We work towards an inclusive culture and society where everyone can enjoy equal rights.
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8 Llankelly Place,
Kings Cross, Sydney 2011
Australia
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(Saturday close at 4pm)
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WATER IS PRECIOUS IN THE DESERT
The story of Australia’s Biggest Free Water Grab
GRAHAM PULA BEASLEY
ROSIEANNE NAPANANGKA HOLMES
SARAH NABANGARDI HOLMES
JACLYN NANGALA HOLMES
NED JUNGARRAYI KELLY
OWEN JAPALJARRI MILLER
WARRICK JAPANGARDI MILLER
DOREEN NANGALA MURPHY
VALERIE NAKAMARRA NELSON
MARTHA NAKAMARRA POULSON
CYSILA NAPANANGKA ROSE
Opening Saturday 26 October, 2 pm
The Cross Art Projects
In the presence of Maureen Nampijinpa O’Keefe (Poet and convenor of Running Water Community Press), Valerie Nakamarra Nelson (Artist), Harry Price (Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre) and Alex Vaughan (Arid Lands Environment Centre)
Exhibition runs 28 October — 23 November 2024
Presented by The Cross Art Projects In proud collaboration with Arlpwe Art & Culture Centre, Arid Lands Environment Centre and Running Water Community Press (Mparntwe/Alice Springs)
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Water is Precious in the Desert is an exhibition about water in danger. Ancient aquifers—those well-known like the Great Artesian Basin and others, little-known, like the aquifers lying under arid lands in the Northern Territory—are the major sources of fresh water for the world’s driest and flattest continent. In 2021, the biggest groundwater licence in Northern Territory and possibly Australia’s history was quietly granted to Singleton Station, a pastoral lease right next to the Aboriginal Community of Ali Curung, for a “horticulture precinct”.
Works in the exhibition show country and water as an all-embracing concept. These definitive paintings by waterkeepers cry out, ‘Water is sacred. Water is life.’ Native title holders and their supporters fear the licence will lower the water table, damaging groundwater-dependent trees, springs, soaks and swamps, whilst threatening cultural sites.
The approval of the water licence has triggered a fight using legal and cultural means. The title ‘Water is Precious in the Desert’, pays homage to the ongoing campaign of the same name, initiated by poets and writers at Running Water Community Press in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, led by Maureen Nampijinpa O’Keefe.
Martha Nakamarra Poulson, My Family’s Country, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 80 cm (#23-262)