Awakening Histories traces the enduring and centuries old connections between First Nations Peoples across the north of this continent and the Maskassan seafarers of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. This exhibition celebrates the deep intercultural connections that remain prominent in art, language, and material culture.

These art works share stories of migration, trade, and cultural exchange, highlighting the role of trepang or sea cucumber, trochus, and turtle shells, tamarind trees, palm wine, seafaring technology, metal tools, and textiles. These exchanges occurred from the Gulf of Carpentaria, around Arnhem Land to Garamilla/Darwin, an area that was known as Marege to the sailors from Makassar, and through to the Kimberley region, or Kayu Djawa. This project foregrounds Indigenous sovereignty and ocean-centred storytelling. It presents methodologies for the passing of knowledge through families and generations—living histories that counter assumptions that this land’s peoples were isolated, or that it was ‘discovered’ by Europeans during colonial expansion. The exhibition helps re-position Australia’s regional relationships and pre-colonial history, contributing to the dialogue around First Nations ways of knowing and being.

Developed by a curatorium of researchers and curators based in Australia and Indonesia, Awakening Histories brings together artists’ commissions and key works from major collections. It centres the storytelling of art and artists, following trade routes and cultural exchange to recast history.

The exhibition is presented in partnership with Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Naarm/Melbourne and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Boorloo/Perth.

Awakening Histories has been informed by Monash University’s ARC Laureate project Global Encounters & First Nations Peoples: 1000 Years of Australian History. The exhibition was originally presented at MUMA, 4 October – 6 December 2025, and PICA, 6 February – 29 March 2026