In 1997, Judy Watson exhibited alongside Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Yvonne Koolmatrie at the Venice Biennale’s Australian pavilion. That three Indigenous female artists were selected to be shown at the prestigious event was considered unusual and, in some circles, controversial – there were “predictable howls about political correctness”, the art critic John McDonald wrote at the time – even though the exhibition, which also had Indigenous curators, was positively received.
Almost 30 years on, it is a much more common, and celebrated, occurrence to see Indigenous artists at these large international shows, as the art of the oldest living culture in the world gains more understanding across borders.
