From 6 April, the Australian Museum in Sydney will be hosting an exhibition exploring the journey of one of the last Aboriginal groups to make contact with Europeans.

Colliding Worlds: First contact in the Western Desert, 1932-1984 presents a series of first contact episodes, mixing research and personal reflections, on the earliest encounters between Europeans and Pintupi people over the past 75 years.

The Aboriginal people of the Western Desert were among the last Indigenous communities to make contact with Europeans, most recently in 1984 when a group of nine Aboriginal people emerged from their desert home 800km west of Alice Springs.

The Aboriginal groups from this region, including the Pintupi, Ngalia, Walpiri, Luritja, Western Arrernte, Ngatatjara and others, have since played a significant role in the development of contemporary Aboriginal art and have achieved international acclaim for their work.

Colliding Worlds charts the history of early cultural collisions from 1932 until 1984, and explores the development of the Western Desert art movement, founded by men who experienced first contact.

The exhibition features previously unseen artefacts and significant artworks of the Western Desert, as well as photographs from the internationally renowned Donald Thomson collection held at Museum Victoria.

The exhibition is developed by Museum Victoria and the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya. It is supported by the Commonwealth Government through The Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia.

The exhibition will run until 19 August 2007 and is free with paid museum entry.