'Visual language': A look inside the Indigenous Australian art at Newfields' Lume

Kate Constantine incorporates influences into her art from lived experiences that she describes as two different worlds. Growing up in Sydney, she was influenced by Western technology, education and societal norms. But as she became an adult and developed her art practice, she delved deeper into her heritage as a descendant of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the first people to live in the area that is today Sydney.
"We're a water culture; our clan totem is a whale. Everything that we do circulates around the harbor and the sea," Constantine, who is a cultural advisor to Newfields, told IndyStar.
Known by her artist name Konstantina, Constantine explores water as part of her identity in her work, which appears in the latest exhibit at Newfields' Lume, "Connection: Land, Water, Sky — Art & Music from Indigenous Australians." The installation depicts how the continent's First Peoples interact with the natural world as they navigate seasons, carry on traditions and pass down stories. The new cinematic installation shows more than 100 contemporary artists who draw on the traditions and cultural stories from myriad communities.
About 120 projectors will beam images of their work as a soundtrack by legendary and modern Australian musicians plays. "Connection" began as a smaller-scale show between Grande Experiences, Newfields' longtime Lume partner, and the National Museum of Australia, Constantine said. She joined the project about five years ago and has seen it grow with each installation, watching more and more people learn about Indigenous artforms that date back at least 65,000 years.
"People understand visual language," Constantine said during a tour of the Lume. "This is the one thing that connects all of us, regardless of our race, regardless of our language, regardless of our social status. We can all visually story-tell from a really authentic and sincere way. And that's something that Aboriginal Australian culture has been doing since time immemorial."
At Newfields, Constantine has created art for a collaborative, interactive piece. Patrons can color in her drawings of a platypus, kangaroo and kookaburra and then scan them into a larger mural, where they'll live with others' creations on the wall in the activities room.
"Connection," which opened May 10, will continue through early 2026. In late June, the Lume will change over the accompanying featurettes to creations by students at the Herron School of Art & Design.
Here's a look at some of the highlights.
Newfields unveils new plans: Canal bridge, Monday hours and new board chair
In 1989, art collector Harrison Eiteljorg, known for launching the eponymous Eiteljorg Museum, gifted the Indianapolis Museum of Art several mid-20th-century bark paintings created by Indigenous artists in Arnhem Land, an area in the northern part of Australia.
The institution has kept the pieces in storage — until now, when they were unveiled in the Lume's gallery that's reserved for physical art.
Using natural pigments and eucalyptus bark, Bob Bopani, Dawidi Birritjama and others painted creation stories, spiritual beings and animals. To explain the iconography for the works' museum debut, Newfields curators worked with Henry Skerritt, an assistant professor in art history at the University of Virginia.
"The pattern making that we see in these artworks (is) part of body paints or scarification or sacred practices within these communities," said Robin Cooper, Newfields' manager of curatorial affairs. "A lot of that knowledge is not known beyond the elder system or initiation system."
Among the works are "suitcase" paintings, which artists created on smaller, hardier canvases so that visiting collectors could more easily transport them. Two such works at Newfields show mimihs — tall, thin, live spirits from community folklore that jump around Arnhem Land's rocks, Cooper said.
Nearby is 2018's "Maruwa" by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, a member of the Pintupi nine nomadic group that lived without contact with Europeans on the continent until 1984. The artist's acrylic on linen — on loan from Amsterdam's SmithDavidson Gallery — depicts the religious cycle of ancestral travel while embedding some secrets only recognized by those who know the culture's full origin story.
"He creates very circular patterns ... that relate to his community's tale of of creation and how they walked in a circular motion and kind of ended up where they began, and that is home; that is what their country is," Cooper said. "The entirety of the tale, of their creation story, is only known to those that are initiated."
About halfway through the Lume experience sits Cafe Ngura, where several recognizable treats use ingredients common in Australia. The goal, Executive Chef Patrick Russ said, was to source foods from the continent but not attempt to mimic traditional Indigenous food.
"How do we take these ingredients and how do we not appropriate a culture?" Russ said.
So the culinary team concocted treats that would allow the ingredients to shine, he said. Across dishes like tea cookies, power bars, beet salad, sausage rolls, cocktails and pavlova, Russ used macadamia nuts, ironbark honey, finger limes, wattleseed and lemon myrtle and other ingredients they were able to source from Australia.
"They're all very, very unique and kind of fun to play around with," Russ said.
The IndianapoLIST newsletter has the best shows, art and eats — and the stories behind them
What: "Connection: Land, Water Sky — Art & Music from the Indigenous Australians"
When and where: Open May 10, 2025-early 2026. The Lume at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, 4000 Michigan Road
Tickets: $29 adults, $25 ages 55 and up, $20 ages 6-17 and free ages 5 and under. Members receive discounts. Tickets include admission to museum and grounds. discovernewfields.org/lume

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