In 1975, in the wake of Cyclone Tracy's destruction of Darwin, Rover Thomas had a series of powerful dreams in which the spirit of his recently deceased aunty visited him.
Over many dreams, she told him that when she died, her spirit had surveyed the devastation the cyclone had caused and she had visited him to share the lesson she had learnt.
Her message propelled the renowned Kimberley artist into action, leading to the creation of one of his major works Jabanunga Goorialla (The Rainbow Serpent).
According to Thomas, who died in 1998, his aunty told him that the Rainbow Serpent was so angered by the weakening of Indigenous cultural practices due to colonisation, that it dove into the earth on its way to the sea, destroying the city in its wake.
"What it was doing was actually surveying the absolute torture that's being bestowed upon mother earth. The mining holes, the cattle industry, all the other impacts of colonisation on culture and on country," said Margo Neale, head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges at the National Museum of Australia.
Cyclone Tracy tore through Darwin in the early hours of Christmas Eve in 1974. It killed 71 people and caused the destruction of about 80 per cent of the city.
Ms Neale said the spirit of Rover Thomas's aunty had sent a message that echoed through generations.
"The lesson was [that] we have to strengthen culture because this is just the beginning of what's going to happen to our culture and our country," she said.
Ms Neale said the Rainbow Serpent signified an all-powerful being.
But Ms Neale said the painting depicted more than just how Cyclone Tracy came about as retribution from the Rainbow Serpent.
"It's about environmental degradation, it's about climate change, it's about imposition of other cultural values on, in this case, the first cultures of this country. It's about our shared past and therefore how to forge a shared future by acknowledging and knowing this kind of thinking," Ms Neale said.
"It's touching the critical contemporary issues that people in the world, let alone Australia, are facing."
Artwork gifted to National Museum of Australia
The $1.2 million artwork was recently gifted to the National Museum of Australia in memory of Indigenous art champion Lauraine Diggins.
Museum director Mathew Trinca said Ms Diggins's husband Michael Blanche had donated the work "recognising its power, its story, its importance for the nation".
"He's done that both to honour the artist but also his late wife Lauraine Diggins," Dr Trinca said.
The painting is almost 3 metres long, which Ms Neale said only added to the message it shared.
The piece will join three other artworks by Rover Thomas as part of the National Museum's National Historic Collection and will be ready for public view in the coming months.
Ms Neale said it was crucial to have Indigenous art pieces on display as there was no better way to understand another culture than through its art.
"So, for me, having this painting at this museum, which, while aesthetically beautiful, has much deeper and profound messages and particularly is suitable for what we are trying to do at the National Museum of Australia," she said.
