LAHORE - Australia Day in Spring returns to Lahore with the theme ‘Celebrating Australia’s Indigenous Culture’, said a press release from the Australian High Commission.
The Australian High Commissioner, Peter Heyward, introduced the premier Aboriginal music trio ‘Western Creation’ and inaugurated an exhibition of Indigenous Australian art called ‘Bush Medicine’ at the Avari Hotel Lahore.
The musicians had flown from Melbourne to perform at Australia Day in Spring events this week.
The group is a winner of United Nations Intercultural Award 2013 and presented aboriginal musical performances including the “didgeridoo”.
Alan Harris, elder of the Noongar tribe and his two fellow players Tristan and Azlan, of the Bibbulmann clan of Western Australia, are one of the most inspiring indigenous groups currently performing in Australia.
Western Creation has performed extensively throughout Australia and internationally, promoting reconciliation and understanding between all people in Australia, into the hearts and minds of their audiences, using dance, music, song and history.
Bush Medicine’ comprises ten artworks by eight artists (six women and two men). The artists all come from the Western Desert region and reflect that genre of contemporary Aboriginal art; it is common for Aboriginal families to share their Dreamings (that is, their spiritual beliefs that inspire the art).

The ‘Bush Medicine’ exhibition was especially bought to Pakistan for Australia Day in
Spring and will have a showing at Nomad Art Gallery in Islamabad from Sunday 13 April to
Tuesday 15 April.

“It is terrific to be able to showcase a central part of Australia’s cultural heritage in form of paintings. This is one of the first times an exhibition of Indigenous Australian art has been shown in Pakistan”, said the High Commissioner, opening the exhibition.

Indigenous Australian art is the oldest ongoing tradition of art in the world. Initial forms of artistic Aboriginal expression were rock carvings, body painting and ground designs, which date back more than 30,000 years. The quality and variety of Australian Indigenous art produced today reflects the richness and diversity of Indigenous culture and the distinct differences between tribes, languages, dialects and geographic landscapes.