Our most recent addition to the slate of shows examining environment and counter histories, Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography, urgently navigates the post-colonial history with a desire to respect and reconcile Indigenous, Anglo-European, Asian and other cultures.

Confronted by an increasingly ecologically fragile continent, presented Australian artists explore questions of identity and belonging, surveying the cultural collision between the “Old World” of Europe and the so-called “New World” of Terra Australis, illustrating changing views of Australian identity, and confronting omissions. Antiquated ideas of Australian identity as white, independent, and stoically masculine are challenged. The exhibition features a variety of portraits of Aboriginal Australians, re-affirming their centrality to Australia’s pre-European and its post-colonial history.

The show’s educational themes include Indigenous culture and cultural identity, migration and colonialism, nationhood and environment.

Programming produced in collaboration with the first receiving venue, Princeton University Art Museum, included the artist talks by Judith Nangala Crispin and Justine Varga, and a virtual artist conversation with Crispin, Varga and Vee Speers moderated by co-curator of the exhibition Graham Howe.