Chilling image from January 26 that stops gallery-goers in their tracks

The small black-and-white photograph is hung on its own, to the side of the gallery.

Most visitors have to stand close and bend down to a child's eye level to see the picture clearly.

In the image, a young girl looks back at the viewer, smiling shyly and sitting on the shoulders of her father, who is wearing an Aboriginal flag T-shirt.

Gallery-goers look between the photo and the label card on the wall next to it, which announces the title of the work — The Targets.

When they realise what they're looking at, some quietly gasp.

The photo was taken by young Kija artist River Bali on January 26 this year in Perth/Boorloo, where a homemade bomb was thrown into the crowd of Invasion Day marchers but failed to detonate.

When Shannon Brett, curator of this year's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), first saw the photograph, their "first reaction was just goosebumps".

"I was like: Wow, this is really important," they said.

"This is a current issue and an alarming statement about racism in Australia."

After the alleged attack, First Nations advocates called out what they described as devastating double standards in the muted response from politicians and the media.

For Bali, the photograph captures the juxtaposition of the vulnerability of Indigenous children alongside "undeniable First Nations resilience".

"Ultimately, the photograph stands as a testament to our enduring spirit, holding firm and lifting up the next generation despite violent threats," he said.

The image is among the 64 finalists in Australia's longest-running and most prestigious First Nations art awards, freshly installed inside a Darwin art gallery.

More than 200 entries came from all corners of the country and were crafted in almost every medium — bark painting, large-scale canvas, video art, woven pandanus, blown glass, twisted reclaimed metal and more.

Finalists of all ages have been selected, with Dr Brett — a Wakka Wakka, Gooreng Gooreng and Butchulla artist and former NATSIAA winner — excited by the dozen-plus emerging artists among them.

"In terms of artists in our First Nations greater community, and I'm one of those people, this is the big one,"

they said.

"I feel like the level of [the finalists] each year increases; it's very exciting."

Among the many stand-outs: a massive technicolour landscape by Coober Pedy opal miner-turned-painter George Cooley, a giant pandanus weaving from 28 women artists across Arnhem Land, and Larrakia artist Jenna Lee's baskets made from "stolen" British Museum tourist maps.

A panel of three judges will announce the winners at a gala event on August 7.

The awards became the richest in the country several years ago, overtaking the Archibald Portrait Prize.

The overall winner takes home $100,000, with category prizes also awarded for bark painting, general painting, works on paper, multimedia, emerging artist and "3D" award capturing sculpture, textiles and other works.