The first solo museum exhibition by Warraba Weatherall.

Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall (b. 1987, Toowoomba, Queensland) considers how knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture is collected and conveyed by institutions.

Throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, Aboriginal peoples were subjected to widespread and systematic colonial policies of surveillance and scientific study. Academics, anthropologists, ethnologists, government officials, medical officers and pastoralists collected and stored information about Aboriginal peoples and cultures without their permission. Underpinned by scientific racism and ethnographic research, Indigenous materials and objects were removed from Country as part of large-scale acquisition programs for museums, private collections and universities.

Shadow and substance, Weatherall’s first solo museum exhibition, features installation, sculpture and video works which draw attention to the ethics of how Indigenous property, cultural information and materials have been acquired and displayed. The artist considers the legacy of such practices and critiques narratives that continue to be found within archival and museum collections.

By foregrounding individual and community histories, including his own family’s experience, Weatherall highlights the gaps and biases of the colonial record, as well as its ongoing influence.

The exhibition premieres a number of new artworks, including Trace (2025), a major new co-commission between the MCA and the Hawai’i Triennial 2025, and the two-channel video installation, Dialectic (2025).