June 2025

Aboriginal art stands as a profound visual testament to the cultural heritage of Indigenous Australians, with a history stretching back tens of thousands of years. This makes it the world’s oldest continuous living tradition of art-making.1 Archaeological evidence, such as a 28,000-year-old charcoal painting on a rock fragment found at the Narwala Gabarnmang rock shelter in the Northern Territory, and even older potential sites like Madjedbebe, possibly dating back 65,000 years, underscore the immense antiquity of these artistic practices.1 This vast timescale is more than a historical curiosity; it highlights the remarkable resilience, adaptability, and deep-rooted nature of Aboriginal cultures, immediately positioning their art as a heritage of global significance. The sheer continuity of this tradition, coupled with its role in transmitting knowledge across millennia, suggests that Aboriginal art is not a static collection of ancient relics. Rather, it functions as a living, evolving archive, adapting to new contexts while preserving core cultural tenets. This dynamic nature challenges any notion of Indigenous cultures as unchanging.