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ABC journalist Virginia Trioli discusses the work of artist Emily Kngwarreye with Sydney Morning Herald art critic John McDonald and National Museum curator Margo Neale. Does Emily’s work compare with modernism? Is it considered abstract expressionist?

Historian Shino Konishi explores the experiences in the 1960s of young Torres Strait Islander men who moved from the Torres Strait to the Australian mainland to work on railway construction.

Renowned art collector Janet Holmes à Court discusses the deeply moving work of Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye with National Museum curator Margo Neale.

Historian Ann McGrath discusses paintings as agents of history, bringing history into the present. She looks at the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye to investigate how paintings tell different stories depending on where they are presented.

Art historian Terry Smith explores how Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s work operates between the evolution of Indigenous and non-Indigenous art in Australia. He draws comparisons with the achievements of contemporary European artists.

Art historian Ian McLean offers a view based on the Australian post-colonial experience, arguing that Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s form of modernism is different from international modernism in both source and history.

The art of Emily Kame Kngwarreye and the use of cultural rituals to demonstrate Aboriginal modernity is explored by curator Sally Butler. She also compares Emily’s art practices to 1970s and 1980s modernist design techniques.

Museum director and Emily Kame Kngwarreye exhibition curator Akira Tatehata explores the ironies of ‘the impossible modernist’ from another cultural space, as a Japanese man steeped in his own culture and an international art curator and academic.

Indigenous art curator Djon Mundine examines the art of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, drawing parallels with other late-style female artists to deepen the understanding of Emily and her work beyond the local perspective.

Artist and gallery owner Christopher Hodges, who had a close association with Emily Kame Kngwarreye, affirms her position as an abstract artist and provides insights into how her thinking was reflected in the Emily exhibition in Japan.