First Nations Award Solo Exhibition Opening

Venue: Judith Wright Arts Centre

Date: 18 September

Time: 6 – 8 pm

Exhibition dates: 16 – 29 September

Blood on the Brush: Colonisation to Resilience by Paul Bong: Bindur – Bullin  

As part of the prize as winner of the First Nations Art Award, Paul Bong and Flying Arts present Blood on the Brush, a solo exhibition of as well as limited print works and never before exhibited sculpture in a two-week exhibition at Judith Wright Art Centre.

Blood on the Brush: Colonisation to Resilience presents a powerful and unflinching body of work by Paul Bong, a Yidinji Elder, artist and story teller from North Queensland. Known for his precision in printmaking and his commitment to cultural storytelling, Bong uses art as both testimony and resistance, transforming personal and ancestral history into enduring visual narratives.

This exhibition brings together limited edition prints, striking contemporary glass works and original paintings. At the heart of many of these works is the enduring motif of the Yidinji shield, a symbol of cultural identity, protection, and ancestral strength.

The Yidinji shield, traditionally crafted for both ceremony and defense, holds deep significance as a visual representation of resistance. In Bong’s work, the shield is reimagined and reasserted not as a relic, but as a living symbol of Yidinji sovereignty. It becomes both protector and storyteller, anchoring his works in cultural lineage and asserting the ongoing presence of Yidinji people on Country.

Paul Bong’s winning artwork of the First Nations Award is Beginning of Creation(2024). This work is currently on tour in Resolution, the QRAA touring exhibition, on show now in Charleville.

Image: Paul Bong, Beginning of Creation (2024), Acrylic on to arches paper

Photo credit: Joe Ruckli