“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. They did not know of 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.”
— Otto Jungarrayi Sims (Former Chairman of Warlukurlangu Artists)

Over the past decade, groups of Warlpiri artists in Central Australia, working in collaboration with British artist Patrick Waterhouse, have revised a collection of maps, flags, photographs, comic illustrations and other archival material. The resulting works amend assumptions inscribed in these documents, address what is missing from the historical record, and give voice to stories passed down from generation to generation by the original custodians of the land.

A collection from these works, Revisions: made by the Warlpiri of Central Australia and Patrick Waterhouse opens at Agency in September and runs until 10 October 2026. Curated at the Warlukurlangu Art Centres in Yuendumu and Nyirripi with artists, families and community members, the exhibition brings together works on paper, photographs, moving images and archival material.

The project 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. Shared with artists, families and community members, these documents became a ground for response. Warlpiri artists of different generations reworked the materials in their own ways—dot painting across maps, layering patterns onto photographs, inscribing symbols into flags and records—bringing community knowledge and lived experience to the surface.

The works can be read as revision, defacement or revelation, each one reflecting a meeting of archive and community, Country and record. The exhibition includes a showing of the award-winning documentary Making Revisions, which shares the story of the collaboration.

Revisions exhibition opening will be held on 4th September 2026, 5-7pm, at Agency Project’s Wukuṉ Waṉambi Project Space, 47 Easey Street Collingwood.

RSVP to our opening here

Revisions will run from Friday 4 September – Saturday 10 October 2026

Open Wednesday – Saturday 12.00 – 5.00pm or by appointment.

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Image: Geological Map, 1888 by Charles Smith Wilkinson, Revised with Pauline Napangardi Gallagher 2014-2022, Acrylic Paint on Original Offset Lithographic Print on Paper

The works in the exhibition were revised in the Warlukurlangu Art Centres in the Yuendumu and Nyirripi communities in the Northern Territory, in collaboration with:
Adrianna Nangala Egan, Agnes Nampijinpa Brown, Alma Nungarrayi Granites, Angelina Nampijinpa Tasman, Athena Nangala Granites, Cecily Napanangka Marshall, Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson, Charmain Napangardi Granites, Delena Napaljarri Turner, Dorothy Napurrurla Dickson, Felicity Nampijinpa Robertson, Flora Nakamarra Brown, Geraldine Napangardi Granites, Hazel Nungarrayi Morris, Hilda Nakamarra Rogers, Jacob Jungarrayi Spencer, Jeanie Napangardi Lewis, Jessica Napanangka Lewis, Joy Nangala Brown, Judith Nungarrayi Martin, Julie Nangala Robertson, Juliette Nakamara Morris, Kirsten Nangala Egan, Kirsty Anne Napanangka Brown, Leah Nampijinpa Sampson, Lola Nampijinpa Brown, Lorraine Nungarrayi Granites, Madeleine Napangardi Dixon, Margaret Nangala Gallagher, Margaret Napangardi Lewis, Margie Napurrurla Leo, Marilyn Maria Nangala Turner, Marissa Napanangka Anderson, Mary Napangardi Brown, Melinda Napurrurla Wilson, Nathania Nangala Granites, Ormay Nangala Gallagher, Otto Jungarrayi Sims, Pauline Nampijinpa Singleton, Sabrina Napangardi Granites, Polly Anne Napangardi Dixon, Ruth Nungarrayi Spencer, Sabrina Nangala Robertson, Sarah Napaljarri Sims, Sarah Napurrurla Leo, Selma Napanangka Tasman, Shanna Napanangka Williams, Steven Jangala Hargraves, Tanya Nungarrayi Collins, Valda Napangardi Granites, Valerie Napanangka Marshall, Walter Jangala Brown, Watson Jangala Robertson, Wendy Nungarrayi Brown, Wilma Napangardi Poulson.

Curators
Warlukurlangu Art Centres in Yuendumu and Nyirripi, with artists, families and community members.

Biographies

Warlukurlangu Art Centre
Warlukurlangu is named after a Dreaming site west of Yuendumu; in the Warlpiri language it means “belonging to fire.” Established in 1985 in Yuendumu, 290 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs, it is one of the oldest Aboriginal-owned art centres in Central Australia. In 2014, another branch was opened in Nyirripi, a Warlpiri community 200 kilometres to the west. Any person in Yuendumu or Nyirripi can take part in the art centre’s activities.

In 1989, six Warlukurlangu artists installed the floor painting Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming), a 40-square-metre work, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris for the landmark exhibition Magiciens de la terre. Today, Yuendumu is one of the largest Aboriginal desert communities in Australia, with a population of 800–1,000, almost all of whom belong to the Warlpiri language group. More than half the community paints, and children are encouraged to begin making art from an early age.

The Yuendumu Men’s Museum, a stone building opened in 1971 as a site for ceremony and cultural preservation, was restored between 2006 and 2015 with the support of the Warlukurlangu Art Centre. It remains an important repository of Warlpiri art and heritage. The Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation is directed by an Executive Committee of men and women representing Yuendumu’s skin groups, who are active in the daily life of the centre and its wider social, economic, medical and cultural projects.

Patrick Waterhouse
Patrick Waterhouse (b. 1981, England) is an artist whose work explores the shifting nature of our understanding of the past. Through processes that play with narrative representation, his practice illuminates how histories are constructed and retold.

In 2008, Waterhouse began Ponte City, a six-year collaboration with Mikhael Subotzky that examined Johannesburg’s fifty-four-storey cylindrical apartment building through architecture, archives and personal narratives, revealing multiple, often conflicting accounts of its history.

Collaboration is central to his practice, shaping both process and outcome. In the making of Restricted Images, Waterhouse lived and worked with Warlpiri communities in Yuendumu and Nyirripi over a five-year period, taking photographs and sharing archival materials that became sites of response. By drawing people into the process of their own representation, the project rethinks questions of agency in photography and art.

Waterhouse’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including FotoMuseum, Antwerp (2019); Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque (2018); Kunsthal, Rotterdam (2017); Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2016); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (2015); The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2015); National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2014); Le Bal, Paris (2014); Biennale de Lubumbashi, DR Congo (2013); International Center of Photography Triennial, New York (2013); Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich (2011); and the South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2010). His work is held in major public and private collections including Centre Pompidou, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany. Awards include the Discovery Award at Rencontres d’Arles (2011) and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2015, with Mikhael Subotzky for Ponte City).

Revisions is presented in partnership with Warlukurlangu Artists, with generous support from the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program.