*Use code WANAMBI917 for free admission for CUID holders

The W. Waṉambi Distinguished Lecture is presented in celebration of the opening of Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, on view at Asia Society Museum September 17, 2024 – January 05, 2025. The lecture is given by Scientia Professor Dr. Megan Davis, the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and renowned public law expert and constitutional lawyer focused on the rights of First Nations Peoples. This lecture explores the place of Aboriginal art in the long journey to legal recognition and Voice in Australia. Tracing calls for recognition through a Voice, from the Yirrkala Bark Petitions to the Barunga Statement to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, this lecture will speak to this journey including the 2023 referendum where Australians endorsed the continued exclusion of First Nations people from the Australian Constitution. 

Join us for an insightful and thought-provoking discussion with Dr. Davis, accompanied by a traditional manikay musical performance by Yolŋu artists from northeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.