Artwork commemorating Indigenous Australian history triumphs in Venice

Prize for best national participation goes to Archie Moore, who becomes first Australian artist to win it

The artist Archie Moore has won the prestigious Golden Lion for best national participation at the 2024 Venice Biennale - the first time an Australian artwork has won the prize.

With this year's theme of Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere," Moore won the award for his artwork, kith and kin, at the Australia Pavilion. The work, which has involved the artist mapping a sprawling genealogy in chalk, concerns 65,000 years of Indigenous Australian history and nonlinear concepts of time and place. Below the vast family tree covering the dark walls and ceiling stands a white table covered in records of First Nations deaths, including those in police and prison custody.