Tarnanthi

📣 Calling all experienced First Nations visual art curators and artistic directors 📣

AGSA is seeking expressions of interests for the role of Artistic Director, Tarnanthi (due 4 May), and is recruiting for the position of Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art (due 8 May).

Expressions of interest and applicants must identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Apply now: https://loom.ly/RSZHUHQ

📸 Saige Prime

This Friday evening, you’re invited to join Pitjantjatjara and Adnyamathanha artist Patrick Ferguson at the to celebrate his solo exhibition ‘Warnduwatya wirti inhaadi (Very good wood here)’.

Meet the artist, take in the exhibition and enjoy free wine tastings, roaming canapés and live music at Unwined Uncovered: Sensational Sparkling 💥

This is the last day to view the exhibition!

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Meet the Artist
Friday 27 Feb 2026
5-7pm
Ground Floor, National Wine Centre Artspace
Free

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Master carver Patrick Ikaringanyi Ferguson presents shields, weapons and other traditional works made from punu (wood) collected from his homelands and crafted using traditional and innovative techniques. Ferguson learnt woodcarving skills from his grandmother when he was young, and for the past twenty years it has been his passion. During trips to his Country in northern South Australia, he carefully selects timber and other materials to create his unique pieces. His work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally.

photo: Patrick Ferguson, Pitjantjatjara/Adnyamathanha people, South Australia, born Broken Hill, New South Wales 1976, Battle shield, Hookina Creek, Yapala Station, Hawker, South Australia, wood (Red River Gum)

Master carver Patrick Ikaringanyi Ferguson presents shields, weapons and other traditional works made from punu (wood) collected from his homelands and crafted using traditional and innovative techniques.

Ferguson learnt woodcarving skills from his grandmother when he was young, and for the past twenty years it has been his passion.

During trips to his Country in northern South Australia, he carefully selects timber and other materials to create his unique pieces. His work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally.

See Warnduwatya wirti inhaadi (Very good wood here) at the National Wine Centre until 27 Feb 2026.

📸 Patrick Ferguson, Pitjantjatjara/Adnyamathanha people, South Australia, born Broken Hill, New South Wales 1976, Battle shield, Hookina Creek, Yapala Station, Hawker, South Australia, wood (Red River Gum)

Mokuy are spirit sculptures made by Nawurapu Wunungmurra of the Dhalwangu clan of northeast Arnhem Land, featuring Yirritja moiety triangular cloud designs known as wangupini. These forms are also connected to larrakitj (memorial poles) and relate to his Gurrumuru homeland.

Yolŋu sacred songs tell of the first rising clouds on the horizon, signals of the Macassan praus arriving and departing with seasonal winds. These movements mirror cycles of grief, death, and rebirth, where sunsets, clouds, and changing seasons recall loss and the return of spirit.

In 2016, Nawurapu Wunungmurra applied these revived triangular cloud designs to mokuy for the first time, drawing on Gurrumuru miny’tji and Yolŋu law. The motifs speak to the water cycle of souls, from ocean to cloud to rain, and the ongoing renewal of life.

See Mokuy in Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi until next Sunday 18 Jan.

📸 Photos by Saul Steed

Join us on Sat 17 Jan for a screening of Tracks of the Unseen - Roads to Cultural Gatherings, followed by a panel discussion with Jay Milera, First Nations elders and project collaborators.

This Narungga-led project is more than a documentary – it is an evocative pilgrimage, a poetic unfolding into the hidden pathways of Australia’s rich Aboriginal footprint, illuminating a legacy nearly erased by colonial shadows.

The film breathes life into faded tracks, retracing the ancient connections between neighbouring nation groups and the re-emerging presence of the Nantawarra, a once-lost fifth nation now being remembered through the stories of our Elders.

Tracks of the Unseen is an unyielding reminder that Narungga culture is not lost, merely awaiting recognition, respect and revival. The first part of this evolving documentary screens as part of the closing weekend celebrations of Tarnanthi 2025.

📍 Radford Auditorium
🎥 Screening and panel from 2pm. Free, all ages.

📸 still: Jay Milera, Narungga/Kaurna people, South Australia, born Maitland, South Australia, Tracks of the Unseen, 2024, video with sound, Port Victoria, South Australia, © Jay Milera, courtesy of the OSCA Projects; photo: Max Mackinnon.