Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Djon

1990 (printed 2013)
Michael Riley

from the series ‘Michael Riley Portraits 1984-1990’
inkjet print on paper (frame: 46.0 cm x 43.4 cm depth 5.0 cm, image: 43.5 cm x 41.0 cm)

Djon Mundine OAM is a Bandjalung curator, writer, artist and activist. Between 1979 and 1995 he was the art adviser at Milingimbi and Ramingining in the Northern Territory. Together with Ramingining artists he conceived the Aboriginal Memorial, which has been on virtually continuous display at the National Gallery of Australia since 1988. Mundine has held curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Queensland Art Gallery, among others. In 2005–2006 he was research professor at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) in Osaka, Japan. His exhibitions include Tyerabowbarwarryaou – I Shall never Become a Whiteman (with Fiona Foley, 1994) for the Havana Biennale and the Museum of Contemporary Art; The Native Born (1996) at the Museum of Contemporary Art; They are Meditating: Bark Paintings from the Museum of Contemporary Art's Arnott's Collection (2008); and the touring exhibition Bungaree: The first Australian (2015–2016). Mundine won the Australia Council's 2020 Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement and is an independent curator of contemporary Indigenous art and cultural mentor.

Michael Riley, a Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi photographer, filmmaker and video-artist, was one of Australia's most influential Aboriginal contemporary artists. This image of Mundine was first exhibited in Riley's solo exhibition, Portraits by a Window in 1990, representing the vibrant urban-based Indigenous arts community in Sydney.

Purchased 2013
© Michael Riley/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Michael Riley (age 30 in 1990)

Djon Mundine OAM (age 39 in 1990)

Subject professions

Activism

Visual arts and crafts

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency