Changing the Conversation about Australia’s Deep History
Overview
This report presents findings of the impact evaluation of four art works commissioned by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH). The CABAH Art Series engaged artists to respond to multidisciplinary research about the environmental and cultural changes that have shaped Australia over the past 130,000 years, aiming to further CABAH’s mission to ‘change the conversation’ about Australia’s deep history.
The four commissions included Where Lakes Once Had Water (2020), a large-scale audiovisual installation by Sonia Leber and David Chesworth; Unseeded (2022), 35 hand-blown glass boab nuts by UK Frederick; Mangal Bungal: Clever Hands (2023), a three-day cultural festival at Queensland Museum led by the Dingaal community; and Ngurruwarra/Derndernyin: Stone Fish Traps of the Wellesley Islands (2024), a 20-metre collaborative painting by ten artists from the Kaiadilt, Lardil, Yangkaal and Gangalidda communities.
The report introduces the ‘Changing the Conversation Framework’ to analyse how the artworks effected change in public discourse. Based on the interconnected lenses of voices, contexts, perspectives and actions, the report applies the framework to show how the artworks amplified diverse voices and forms of expression, expanded the contexts in which deep time knowledge is created and shared, enabled profound shifts in perspective for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences, and created new opportunities for action in relation to contemporary issues such as climate change, Indigenous land management and truth-telling.
The report applies these insights to the larger question of how art can change public conversations more broadly. It identifies four lessons for arts-led research engagement: 1) Art can help people know more by feeling differently; 2) Art can build partnerships that connect researchers, communities and public spaces; 3) Art can support Indigenous leadership; and 4) Art can enable difficult public conversations.
The report provides evidence of the value of arts-led participatory knowledge creation, showing that impactful public conversations are about more than messages or content. Meaningful change depends on who is included, how they are listened to, and in what conditions the conversation happens. Change requires dialogue that shifts the perspectives of everyone involved, enabling new possibilities for action in the world.
Changing the Conversation about Australia’s Deep History: The impact of the CABAH Art Series is available to read online or download for free.
Publication details
ISBN: 978-0-9756623-5-9
eBook (PDF download), 78pp
Date of publication:
November 2026
Authors: Lizzie Muller, Lizzie Crouch and Stephanie
Beaupark
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17082/isbn9780975662359
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