By Jim Darby

Copyright brisbanetimes

Before we go behind the scenes, here’s the scene. It’s a sharp spring morning, blue sky and crisp air, the kind of morning that has you forgiving Melbourne for its capricious capers with weather. We’re out the door of the StandardX Hotel in Fitzroy, an inner suburb with soul. They could have built the hotel on one of the main streets, but instead tucked it away down the side, sandwiched by wedding-cake sized terrace houses and apartments that once were warehouses.

Already immersed in the city’s urban culture, we’re about to go deeper with Cultural Attractions of Australia – a collection of curated, behind-the-scenes experiences for travellers to experience Australian culture with some depth. First up for us is the National Gallery of Victoria and its Indigenous Australian collection.

A brief ride in the taxi and we’re at Federation Square, into the gallery ahead of the usual opening hours for a tour with Michael Gentle, NGV curator for Australian and First Nations art. We’re in an exhibition space called Wurrdha Marra, meaning “many mobs” in Wurundjeri.

The stories are tens of thousands of years old, but most of the mediums here for telling them – the paint and the canvas – weren’t used until European contact. “This gallery is showcasing that Aboriginal art can be anything it wants to be,” Gentle says.