Geoffrey Bardon and Papunya art - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The prevailing view of the origins of the Aboriginal art movement, as we know it today, is that it was started by Geoffrey Bardon, a white school teacher from Sydney who went to Papunya in Central Australia in the early 1970s. A new biography paints a complex picture of a man whose mental ill-health both hampered and helped his passion for this art.

Papunya Airport in 2001. In 1971, Geoffrey Bardon arrived there at night, in his Kombi van, after driving from Sydney. It would be 18 months that would change his life, and result in Aboriginal art being celebrated worldwide.  (John van Hasselt/Sygma/Getty Images)