The W. Waṉambi Distinguished Lecture is presented in celebration of the opening of Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, on view at Asia Society Museum September 17, 2024 - January 05, 2025. The lecture is given by Scientia Professor Dr. Megan Davis, the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and renowned public law expert and constitutional lawyer focused on the rights of First Nations Peoples. This lecture explores the place of Aboriginal art in the long journey to legal recognition and Voice in Australia. Tracing calls for recognition through a Voice, from the Yirrkala Bark Petitions to the Barunga Statement to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, this lecture will speak to this journey including the 2023 referendum where Australians endorsed the continued exclusion of First Nations people from the Australian Constitution. 

Join us for an insightful and thought-provoking discussion with Dr. Davis, accompanied by a traditional manikay musical performance by Yolŋu artists from northeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Scientia Professor Dr. Megan Davis 

 Scientia Professor Dr Megan Davis grew up in Eagleby and Hervey Bay, Qld and is a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation. Prof. Davis is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society (PVCS) at UNSW Sydney. Professor Davis is also a UNSW Scientia Professor, the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, a Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law Centre UNSW Law.

She is a renowned constitutional lawyer and public law expert, focusing on the human rights of First Nations peoples. She has been the leading Australian lawyer on constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades and designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Prof Davis was a Commissioner on the QLD Commission of Inquiry into Youth Detention Centres in 2016 and was the Chair and author of ‘Family is Culture’, an inquiry into NSW Aboriginal Out of Home care (2017-2019).

She is a globally recognized expert in Indigenous peoples' rights and was elected by the UN Human Rights Council to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples based in Geneva in 2017 and again in 2019 (2017-2022) and was previously elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to the role of expert member and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN Headquarters in New York (2011-2016).

Prof Davis is an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. She is a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission, a director on the North Qld Cowboys Community Foundation Board, a Commissioner for Western Australia Rugby League Commission.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

In 2023 Prof Davis was named on TIME Magazine’s TIME NEXT100 list of the Next Generation of Global leadership under the category of “Leaders”.  She was also named “Powerhouse of the Year” at the Annual Marie Claire Women of the Year Awards.

 Maḏayin is organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in partnership with Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre.

The exhibition is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Australian Government, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Mellon Foundation, Creative Australia, Australian Capital Equity Pty Limited | Kerry Stokes Collection, Foundation Opale, the Jefferson Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Crozier Fine Arts.

The presentation at Asia Society is generously funded by our lead sponsors News Corp and Pratt Foundation, with additional support from George and Mary Dee Hicks, D'Lan Contemporary, Mark Tucker, the National Endowment for the Arts, and others.