The National Museum of Australia regards this collection as one of truly national significance, providing a unique archive of Indigenous social and cultural histories. It is an important addition to the nation’s heritage and history collections. – Craddock Morton, speaking as Director, National Museum of Australia, 2008.

Curating the Collection

During seven week-long sessions over 14 months, a team comprising co-curators Hayley Atkins, Louise Mengil, Terry Murray, John Carty, Monique La Fontaine and Carly Davenport, with consulting curator and mentor Wally Caruana, struggled to decide which of the 243 works produced as part of the Canning Stock Route Project would be included in the final collection. The team’s considerations were not only aesthetic. A number of the nearly 140 selected works were considered crucial to the collection because of the stories they conveyed and the Country they represented, rather than for their formal qualities alone.