Sunday 23 November saw the Yarra Ranges community experience a unique and immersive art experience, which featured tours and artist talks to reflect on a decade’s worth of work.
Revisions: made by the Warlpiri of Central Australia and artist Patrick Waterhouse, has settled into its space at Burrinja Cultural Centre this month, settling in with and celebrating with a special Community Program Day
The day began with a Welcome to Country by Proud Wurundjeri woman and curator Stacie Piper, which was followed by a gallery tour and artist talks by Warlpiri artists visiting from Central Australia and UK-based artist Patrick Waterhouse.
Stacie Piper said the day was very nourishing and that she enjoyed the company of the visiting Warlpiri artists and the curators, alongside the welcoming hosts at Burrinja.
“It was a lovely event, very relaxing and calm atmosphere,” she said.
“It was a really beautiful community event.”
Celebrating the exhibition’s new home, Patrick Waterhouse presented a screening of True Story, followed by a Q&A with artists, including Wendy Nungarrayi Brown, who is the current Chairperson of the Warlukurlangu Artists.
Mr Waterhouse felt the day was quite special and important for the work to be shown.
“I’m really glad it’s here showing at Burrinja,” he said.
Running until 1 March 2026, the exhibit was curated at the Warlukurlangu Art Centres in Yuendumu and Nyirripi, bringing together works on paper, photographs, moving image and archival material.
It began when Waterhouse travelled to Warlpiri Country with a growing archive of historical materials collected over many years, along with photographs he had made while working in Central Australia.
290 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs, Warlukurlangu is one of the oldest Aboriginal-owned art centres in Central Australia and is named after a Dreaming site west of Yuendumu.
It means “belonging to fire” in the Warlpiri language.
Otto Jungarrayi Sims, the Former Chairman of Warlukurlangu Artists, has said of the Revisions exhibition that when white explorers created their maps, they dissected this land with arbitrary lines and imposed state borders.
“They didn’t understand the diversity of nations and tribal people inhabiting this country,” he said.
“They did not know we had our own stories, songlines, boundaries, and nations”
“Ancient tribal stories criss-cross all over this continent, tracks of totems belonging to different clans and language groups of the land they called Australia.”
The community day allowed audiences to gain rare insight into the stories behind the works and how the collaboration began.
Locals who live or work in the Yarra Ranges can still see the exhibition until March next year and enjoy a five-dollar ticket entry to the Australian premiere of Revisions on Wednesdays.
Burrinja Cultural Centre will be closed from 22 Dec and reopens 14 January 2026.
