Tarnanthi 2018

Tarnanthi, pronounced tar-nan-dee, comes from the language of the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the Adelaide Plains. It means to come forth or appear – like the sun and the first emergence of light – signifying new beginnings. Now in its third year, Tarnanthi Festival provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists with the opportunity to create significant new work.

In 2018 Tarnanthi features a focus exhibition produced and presented in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, and Maningrida Arts and Culture, John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new – the first major Australian survey exhibition of leading contemporary artist John Mawurndjul. Having been celebrated internationally for his ground-breaking approach to bark painting and dazzling radiance of his rarrk – a cross-hatching technique – John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new spans four decades of paintings and sculptures by one of Australia’s greatest living artists.

The 2018 program highlights also include the Tarnanthi Art Fair, an annual event for buying works of art direct from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and art centres, and panpa-panpalya, a public symposium modelled on the Kaurna philosophy of gathering to exchange and share knowledge.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are respectfully advised that the following videos may contain the images of people who have passed away.

Tarnanthi is led by Artistic Director Nici Cumpston, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Cumpston is a proud Barkandji artist, writer, and educator who is also of Afghan, English and Irish heritage. She is a descendant of the people of the Barka, the Darling River, in far western New South Wales. Her career has been characterised by working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to bring new work and new ways of seeing to wider audiences.