Australian Indigenous artwork makes its way to Denver, first time it's ever left the country

Australian Indigenous artwork is making its way to the Denver Art Museum.

This exhibit is called "The Stars We Do Not See," and it's the first time this artwork has ever left Australia.

This artwork comes from an Australian culture that dates back more than 65,000 years — more than 2,000 generations that have shared pieces made of items you can find across Australia.

The artwork focuses on the oldest living things from the land, sky, waters, living beings, ancestral knowledge, and spirituality, and focuses on how Indigenous people connect with the past and the future in Australia.

Many Australian Indigenous artists make the pieces, including paintings on eucalyptus bark and neon light sculptures. Some even use natural pigments that are applied from homemade brushes made of human hair.

In the early 1900s, curators say a British-Australian biologist from the Arnhem Lands coastal regions was asked to create paintings on single sheets of eucalyptus bark. Before this request, designs had only been painted on cave walls, bark shelters, and ceremonial objects.

Curators with the Denver Art Museum say many visitors are used to seeing Indigenous artwork from places across the United States, but this would be a great way to learn from other cultures.

"It's a way of helping our visitors connect with really diverse perspectives and lived experiences," John Lukovic, the Andrew W. Mellon curator and department head of native arts for the Denver Art Museum, said. "But also to see some of the parallels that they may find between experiences here as impacts of colonialism and racism."

The exhibit is not available for the public to see until Sunday, April 19, and it will run through July 26.

Anyone under the age of 18 can see the exhibit for free.