Filter by
State Library of NSW

The Country Cries for Truth: Dr Bronwyn Bancroft

When

Mondays to Thursdays, 9am to 8pm Fridays, 9am to 5pm Weekends, 10am to 5pm Wednesday 19 June to Sunday 1 June 2025

The Country Cries for Truth is a powerful and personal exhibition by distinguished Bundjalung artist Dr Bronwyn Bancroft celebrating family and connection to Country, while exploring the complex and painful legacies of colonisation.

Dr Bronwyn Bancroft, artist, book author/illustrator, mother and truth-telling warrior from the Northern Rivers of NSW, has a masterly approach to her works, and this exhibition will lead you through a passage of curiosity and reflection. 

Allow yourself to be gifted a new lens into our shared history through Dr Bancroft’s artistic practices – where Country was once captured being decimated, Bronwyn warmly invites you to see it being brought back to life through her use of colour, defining lines and added imagery. 

In 2021–22 Dr Bronwyn Bancroft completed a series of works as part of the inaugural NSW First Nations Creative Fellowship at the State Library. These works contain enlivened images of family, sacred belongings from Country and a sequence of mixed-media artworks that are a direct response to historic photographs from the Library’s JW Lindt collection. 

Through her techniques of painting onto family photographs, arresting stencilled river-stone art, and intentional sprinkles of colour and patterning onto colonial historical images, Bancroft’s work gracefully highlights the attempted erasure of Country. At the same time, the works reclaim her ancestral lands through shadowing sentinel trees and watchful figures of mob, reminding the viewer that her people are still ever-present and living.  

The Country Cries for Truth is a celebration of Dr Bronwyn Bancroft’s family and their ongoing connection to Bundjalung Country. This exhibition calls for us to pause and consider the devastation of colonisation for Aboriginal people, and to remember the complex and painful legacies of this history which still live in Country. 

– Cherokee Lord (Curator), Indigenous Engagement, State Library of NSW 

I think The Country Cries for Truth title is actually interconnected with the struggle of Aboriginal people across this country and the tears are real. You know, the tears of pain, the tears of anguish, the tears of displacement, the tears of togetherness, the tears of triumph, there can be happy tears and there can be sad tears. 

– Dr Bronwyn Bancroft

Accessibility

Advertisement

Other events at State Library of NSW

Peter Kingston

Peter Kingston

A tribute to the unique creative talent of Sydney artist Peter Kingston.
Today 9am to 8pm
Amaze Gallery

Amaze Gallery

An ever-changing display of remarkable items from the State Library’s collection.
Today 9am to 8pm
Dunera: Stories of Internment

Dunera: Stories of Internment

See the extraordinary story of the Dunera told through moving artworks and objects
Today 9am to 8pm
Explore The Country Cries for Truth

Explore The Country Cries for Truth

Join a guided curator tour of The Country Cries for Truth, an exhibition celebrating the work of Dr Bronwyn Bancroft.
Today 11am to 11.30am
Family Sunday: Music in art

Family Sunday: Music in art

Join us for live music and art making at the Library
1 Dec 2024
Australian XR Festival 2024 Public Showcase

Australian XR Festival 2024 Public Showcase

Interactive fun experiences from around the world! Featuring gaming, VR, AR, digital art, creative AI, animation & more!
14 Dec 2024