Johnson is considered to be a pioneer in interdisciplinary research as she combines anthropological, sociological, philosophical and art historical perspectives.
She has also done extensive work on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights.
[3] Johnson curated the 2003–2005 Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri national touring retrospective and the 2007–2008 National Museum of Australia’s Papunya Painting: out of the desert which toured to Sydney and Beijing.
[4] In 2005 she was made Professor of New Media Narrative and Theory at the University of New South Wales.
[6] In 2020 Johnson was made a National Library of Australia fellow looking at Writing Papunya: The Making of an Illustrated Vernacular Literature 1974-1991 She was a longtime friend of artist Kumantje Jagamara, and spoke at his funeral in March 2021.