‘This is censorship’: Palestinian flags covered up in major exhibition at National Gallery of Australia

Exclusive: Pacific Indigenous art collective claims NGA cited ‘high level’ security risk in direction to remove Palestinian flag from tapestry

Two Palestinian flags on a tapestry on display at the National Gallery of Australia have been concealed with white fabric, in what the artists have described as an act of censorship they only agreed to reluctantly.

The large tapestry is part of the Te Paepae Aora’i – Where the Gods Cannot be Fooled exhibition, a group show by Pacific Indigenous art collective SaVĀge K’lub. The work features a number of flags, including the Aboriginal flag and the words “justice now”, the Torres Strait Islander flag, the West Papua flag, along with other Moana and Pacific peoples’ symbols, insignia and social justice slogans.

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