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Many Indigenous Australian artists title their works 'My Country' — it is a simple yet unflinching statement about their land: where they are from, where they belong. Here, in this exhibition, 'My Country' also refers to the more recently constructed nation of Australia, highlighting the ways in which Indigenous artists and people engage with the idea of country in both its significant meanings – place and nation.

The exhibition title also makes reference to perhaps the best known and most evocative of the unofficial Australian anthems, Peter Allen's 'I Still Call Australia Home' 1980. In the hands of these artists the phrase takes on a new meaning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have survived, we have not gone away and this is still our land. Through telling their stories, their histories, their contemporary realities, each artist proudly exclaims: 'I Still Call Australia Home'.

'My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Queensland' examines strengths within the Queensland Art Gallery Collection and recognises three main areas as central themes: presenting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander versions of history, responding to contemporary politics and experiences, and illustrating connections to place. In the exhibition these themes are expressed as the visual chapters 'My History', 'My Life' and 'My Country'.

From paintings and sculptures about ancestral epicentres, to photographs and videos that interrogate and challenge the established history of Australia, to artworks responding to political and social situations that affect all Australians today, the thread that binds the disparate artists in the exhibition together is their collective desire to share experiences and tell stories that inform their contemporary identities.

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