THE National Gallery’s 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: “Ceremony” opens to the public tomorrow (March  26).

Curated by Hetti Perkins and the NGA’s curators, “Ceremony” showcases 18 new bodies of work by 38 First Nations artists from across the country.

“‘Ceremony’ is not a new idea in the context of our unique heritage,” Perkins said at a media launch this morning, “but neither is it something that belongs only in the past. In their works, the artists in this exhibition assert the prevalence of ceremony as a forum for artmaking today in First Nations communities.”

The exhibition across the NGA site includes works in the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden, Fern Garden and on Lake Burley Griffin, bringing together range of artists working in a variety of art forms including sculpture, painting, ceramics, moving image, photography and more.

One focus for the exhibition is engagement with regional traditional custodians such as Ngambri-Ngunnawal elder Matilda House and her son Paul Girrawah House, who have created “Mulanggari yur-wang (alive and strong)”, a permanent public art installation of tree scarring in the National Gallery Sculpture Garden.

The National Gallery’s 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: “Ceremony,” March  26-July 31, Details at  nga.gov.au