Emily Kam Kngwarray and Utopia Art Centre

Join Kelli Cole (Warumungu and Luritja peoples, Curator, Special Projects, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art) and Hetti Perkins (Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, Senior Curator-at-Large, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art), in conversation with artists and women from the Utopia Community and linguist, Dr Jennifer Green, to discuss the exceptional collaborations that made this exhibition possible.

Hear from the curators about how they worked collaboratively with the artist’s community to delve into the relationships between her artworks and her extraordinary life as an artist and Anmatyerr woman.

Panellists:

Kelli Cole and Hetti Perkins are co-curators of Emily Kam Kngwarray, 2 Dec 2023 – 28 Apr 2024.

Kelli Cole is a Warumungu and Luritja woman from Central Australia and is Curator of Special Projects at the National Gallery of Australia. Since her commencement at the Gallery in 2007, Cole has worked on several major projects, including all four National Indigenous Art Triennials (2007–22) and the development of the First Nations art galleries in 2010. Cole has curated various exhibitions and has been published widely. She worked closely alongside Hetti Perkins as part of the curatorial team for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony (2022).

Hetti Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon curator, writer, advisor and presenter with 30 years of national and international experience working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts. Perkins has curated major survey exhibitions of Indigenous art, including Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale in 1997, showcasing Emily Kam Kngwarray, Yvonne Koolmatrie and Judy Watson, and the 2006 Australian Indigenous Art Commission at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Most recently, Perkins curated the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony (2022) at the National Gallery of Australia.

Sophia Lunn is the Manager of Utopia Art Centre, a 100% Indigenous owned and community directed initiative launched in 2020. Located 250kms northeast of Alice Springs in the Arlparra Homelands, the centre supports emerging and established artists across 16 remote homelands and provides space for intergenerational learning and cultural expression.

Dr Jennifer Green is a linguist based in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. For more than four decades Green has collaborated with Aboriginal people in Central and Northern Australia, documenting spoken and signed languages, cultural history and visual arts. Green first went to Utopia in the 1970s, where she was instrumental in establishing women’s arts and crafts programs.

Duration: 60 min

Bookings essential.

This program is free for audiences watching online. You can watch with Auslan and live captions or without.