The commitment to the award by successive directors and staff of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is an achievement worth celebrating, and a hefty catalogue has been produced to mark the occasion. But the publication Celebrating 25 Years, appearing almost three years after the anniversary, coincides with troubled times at MAGNT.

The introduction by Dr Sarah Scott is light on analysis and anecdote, but heavy with footnotes. The body of the book is comprised of three linked elements. ‘Prize Winners 1984–2008’ provides an overview of some of the major trends in Indigenous art during a period of remarkable maturation. The ‘Poster series …’ – offset prints commissioned to advertise the award – reveal a trajectory from raw art to cool professionalism. They provide a unique record of the discipline of design at the service of Indigenous art. ‘Selected Artists’, the third and largest segment, is a series of biographies of artists who have entered the award but not necessarily won a prize. Strangely, not all prize winners are profiled. Perhaps the commissioning editor was outflanked by the pace of events in Darwin’s cultural stratosphere?

High production values and great images are seductive, but substantive analysis would have made for a more enduring record of this noteworthy cultural phenomenon.