Three Things To Keep

This tradition upends a lot of Western assumptions about art:

• Time: it has run unbroken for at least 65,000 years — and it is still being made today
• Purpose: the art is not decoration; it helps maintain the Dreaming and the land
• Permission: Country decides who may paint which stories

So this is not a museum relic that ended long ago. It is a working system — one that still shapes communities, law, and identity across Australia right now.