Tony Albert, a Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku-Yalanji artist, has spent decades collecting racist and kitsch objects depicting Aboriginal people, which he calls 'Aboriginalia'. His solo exhibition 'Not a Souvenir' opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney on 21 May, showcasing over 3,000 items from his collection.
The exhibition highlights the commodification and misrepresentation of First Nations people. Albert began collecting as a child, buying a plate with an Aboriginal boy's face from an op shop. He later realised the political connotations and started using the objects in his art, saying, 'I felt like I'd found my medium.'
'Not a Souvenir' includes an 'Aboriginalia room', over 450 souvenir boomerangs, and artworks where items are transformed. Vintage velvet paintings are overlaid with slogans like 'NOT A SOUVENIR', and a text work describes the objects as 'PAINFUL REPRESENTATIONS OF A VIOLENT & OPPRESSIVE HISTORY'.
The MCA is inviting the public to donate similar items to Albert's collection. The exhibition responds to the site's location at Tallawoladah, a tourist hub Albert calls an 'epicentre for cultural commodification'. Albert says the objects alone can be 'confronting', but showing them en masse invites contemplation of their production and consumption.
Albert's recent accolades include serving as First Nations curatorial fellow for the 2024 Biennale of Sydney and artistic director of the 2025 National Indigenous Art Triennial. In December, the French Ministry of Culture named him a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.
