Art + Soul

What does it mean to be 'at home' for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? Is it where you live, or the 'country' you are exiled from? This episode explores diverse contemporary expressions of belonging and exile - from the desert outback to New York.

From The Dreaming, creation era in which ancestral spirit beings shaped the land, to the unsettling nightmare of colonisation, an exploration into the role of memory, dreams and the spirit world in Aboriginal art.

How does the startling beauty - and humour - of Aboriginal art intertwine with reverberations of the past and our present?

DANIEL BOYD paints Captain Cook as pirate, not explorer, and his large dot paintings ask big questions about past actions of the church. Yolngu man WANYUBI MARIKA's art proudly tells ancient stories of law and land. The past is embedded in the light installations of JONATHAN JONES, proclaiming that Australia's rich Aboriginal past can't be extinguished, even within a metropolis as dominant as Sydney. ESME TIMBERY adapts the shell work traditions started by her great-grandmother, demonstrating cultural resilience.

Samson & Delilah writer/director WARWICK THORNTON, from Alice Springs, provokes and challenges with his conceptual art. Tasmanian artist JULIE GOUGH is intent on finding out truths about the past and conveying them by repurposing colonial objects and natural materials. The 2004 Palm Island riots - and those at Cronulla - inspired Brisbane artist VERNON AH KEE, as have family photographs taken during a genealogy expedition in the 1930s.

Remote art centres such as Tjala Arts maintain culture and community. Hetti Perkins takes a look at the works of Brian Robinson, Lola Grenno, Christian Thompson and Nicole Foreshew.