How do Australian First Nations artists navigate the global art world while remaining grounded in local cultural contexts?
ABC journalist and broadcaster, Bridget Brennan hosts the 2025 Wurrdha Marra Conversation – an annual event exploring important issues facing First Nations communities and featuring voices who are leading contemporary discourse.
Featuring a panel of First Nations artists and community leaders, Djon Mundine, Mandy Nicholson and Hayley Millar Baker, this year’s event will explore how First Nations artists engage with international audiences and exhibitions. How do works rooted in Country, language, and community resonate globally, and what are the challenges – financial, geographical, and cultural – artists face when seeking visibility and opportunity beyond Australia.
The event will include an opportunity to view the Wurrdha Marra exhibition from 5.15–6.15pm.
The name, Wurrdha Marra – meaning ‘Many Mobs’ in the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language – comes to the NGV from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and supports the purpose of this exhibition in sharing the work of First Nations artists from the NGV Collection, from emerging to senior figures, and across time and place.
This program is part of Resonance: Truth Telling at NGV. Generously supported by the Ullmer Family Foundation.
About the Host
Bridget Brennan is newsreader and co-host of News Breakfast. She was previously the ABC’s Indigenous Affairs Editor, Europe Correspondent in London and the National Indigenous Affairs Correspondent. She’s covered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for more than a decade and is a Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta woman.