Next

FALL: Water is precious in the desert

Graham Beasley
Sarah Nabangardi Holmes
Ned Kelly
Warrick Japangardi Miller
Owen Miller
Valerie Nakamarra Nelson
Martha Nakamarra Poulson
Doreen Nungala Murphy Rankine

Opening Saturday 26 October, 2 pm
The Cross Art Projects

Exhibition runs 28 October — 23 November 2024

Presented by The Cross Art Projects and Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre (Ali Curung) in association with Arid Lands Environment Centre and Running Water Community Press (Mparntwe/Alice Springs)

“Don’t they see that there are people living on this land? Living off this land? It’s like when the British tested rockets at Maralinga they were blind and didn’t see that people were living there. Then they made the people sick and blind. The birds fell out of the sky. Their country was ruined. Yami Lester was blinded and he had no idea what was happening. Today we know what’s about to happen, there is about to be a water crisis. We have to stop it before it happens.’ — Maureen Nampijinpa O’Keefe, Kaytetye, Walpiri poet and convenor of Running Water Community Press.

FALL: Water is Precious in the Desert is an exhibition about water in danger. Ancient aquifers—those well-known like 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. Disquiet over water, land and resource extraction lie at the heart of the northern Australian policy narrative, known by the euphemism “develop the north”.

The exhibition is a response to a watershed moment. In Central Australia, nearly all water is obtained from groundwater systems. Ali Curung is surrounded by Neutral Junction, Murray Downs and Singleton pastoral leases. In 2021, the biggest groundwater licence in Northern Territory history and possibly in Australia’s history, was quietly granted to Singleton Station (under the NT Water Act 1992).

Martha Nakamarra Poulson, Landscape #2, 2024, acrylic on linen, 92 x 92 cm (#19-24)