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A beginner's guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom

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A beginner's guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom

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Password: Intro2025$

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A Beginner’s Guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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Tarnanthi will return in term 4. We will be offering transport subsidies to Department for Education category 1-4 Schools that are located 30km or more outside of the CBD. Keep an eye on our socials and website for more details.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Tarnanthi marks its tenth anniversary when the Tarnanthi Festival opens in October. Tarnanthi is a continuous celebration of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and a flagship program of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Since it began in 2015, Tarnanthi has established itself as a nation-leader in showcasing the nuanced complexity and radical ingenuity of up-to the-minute contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

The focal point of this year's festival, Tarnanthi at the Gallery is a major new exhibition of outstanding works from previous festivals, promising to animate fresh insights and unique dialogues between works. In Adelaide and around the state, partner venues will present dozens of group and solo exhibitions involving hundreds of artists nationwide working in diverse mediums. During the festival, AGSA will also host an extensive array of talks, tours, performances, workshops, creative activities and student programs, plus themed activities in The Studio.

Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia with Principal Partner BHP and support from the Government of South Australia

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom #16

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom #16

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Fri 24 October

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom #16

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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A percentage of the profits from sales of this book will go to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

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Ideas for the classroom

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Browse our online galleries of student work created in response to works of art, exhibitions and education resources.

If you have student work you would like to submit for our online galleries see our submission guidelines.

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Works of art created by children and young people

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Start at home - ideal for early years and primary

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Start at home - ideal for early years and primary

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Extend your Start experience at home with these activities

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Working from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu first exhibited her paintings in 2021 at the age of seventy-two, after caring for her late sister Mrs N Yunupiŋu for many years. She had previously participated in printmaking workshops with her sisters when in 2011 they collectively made the renowned, Seven Sisters suite of prints.

She is the daughter of the late Gumatj leader, activist, and prominent Australian painter Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu (c.1905-1979). Her family are celebrated across literary, artistic, and political fields with her brother, Dr Mandawuy Yunupiŋu, a founding member and lead singer of Yothu Yindi, and her elder brother, Yunupiŋu, recently deceased, a leader in land rights legislation and former Northern Land Council chairman. Her six sisters are all esteemed artists and previous winners of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Djakaŋu paints on bark using earth pigments and gapan (clay) applied with a small brush called a Marwat, which is a small brush made by hand using fine, straight, human hair. She methodically applies the paint onto the surface of the bark using a technique called rarrk (cross-hatching). Through dedicated practice she has honed and refined this technique.

Tears of the Djulpan illustrates a songline that can be drawn from Arnhem Land through the islands of Southeast Asia to what is now known as Singapore. The story, shared by Djakaŋu's father, explains that women paddle in their canoe from island to island collecting from the land then lighting their fires. The delicate balance of land, sea and stars must be respected, everything depends on it. If the fires are lit before the women return home to cook their food, they will cry. Djakaŋu paints this rain, falling out of season as tears from the sky, known as gurmalili.

Djakaŋu tells of how she would go to school and then comeback to watch her father paint and listen to the stories of Djulpan. Her father explained to her how the story had been painted for a long time and gave Djakaŋu, and her sisters, permission to start painting different parts of the story.

Buku-larrnggay Mulka Centre

Buku-larrnggay Mulka Centre, is an Aboriginal art centre located in far Northeast Arnhem Land in community of Yirrkala. A multidisciplinary centre providing space and facilities for artists and the broader community of all generations. It houses studio space, workshops, the Mulka digital production space and Yirrkala Print Space. The Mulka Centre is particularly popular with young people who congregate during the school holidays to view footage of their ancestors and Yolŋu cultural practice and ceremony.

Find out more:
Mulka Project Yirrkala Print Space

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Working from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu first exhibited her paintings in 2021 at the age of seventy-two, after caring for her late sister Mrs N Yunupiŋu for many years. She had previously participated in printmaking workshops with her sisters when in 2011 they collectively made the renowned, Seven Sisters suite of prints.

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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Pop culture

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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I love trying different things in the art centre. I'm from the generation that grew up with Coca-Cola and TV as well as Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and bush tucker, so I like to have a bit of fun with combining those two worlds.
Kaylene Whiskey quoted by Hannah Presley, Tarnanthi catalogue 2019, p74

Whiskey listens to music or plays films in the background while she paints. What music do you like to listen to while you are working, writing or creating a work of art?

Watch the animation Party Time!, or 52 Actions by Whiskey. As you watch, make a list of all the things or people you recognise. Share your list with the class, what other things did your peers notice? What do these things have in common, can they be grouped in some way?

Now make a list of things that are important to you, include your family, friends, pets as well as your hobbies, interests or favourite foods, sports, TV shows, movies or colours. Create a series of individual drawings to represent each of your favourite and important things. Cut these drawings out and make either a collage or simple animation that communicates the story of your life.

Investigate what pop culture is and how it has influenced artists and their work. Select two works of art (one historical and one contemporary) and analyse how the artists have used pop culture within their work. Compare this approach to that used by Whiskey. What characteristics do these works of art share?

Whiskey likes trying different things in the art centre and stated 'I'm from the generation that grew up with Coca-Cola and TV as well as Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and bush tucker, so I like to have a bit of fun with combining those two worlds.' Similarly, Maluyligal and Wuthathi artist Brian Robinson states:

"Growing up on Waiben (Thursday Island) in the Torres Strait in a family of fisherfolk whose Roman Catholic faith exists in synergy with traditional Maluyligal and Wuthathi spirituality, my creations are seemingly incongruous concoctions where many motifs and characters are co-opted into the spirit world of the Islander imagination, which are then intertwined with historical narrative, personal history and humour ".

Brian Robinson was also in Tarnanthi in 2019 with his work Empyreal: A Place and a Path in the Sky and on the Earth, and in 2015 with Custodian of the Blooms.

Compare works of art by each artist. How do Robinson and Whiskey bring together their 'two worlds' - their cultural stories and popular culture they also grew up with.

Create a drawing incorporating your favourite pop culture references combined with something about your culture or family traditions.

Explore the movies and children's programs featured on NITV, National Indigenous Television made by, for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. You may like to select a few programs you could watch with students, perhaps watch a program weekly or save some favourites for Reconciliation Week or NAIDOC week.

Sometimes artists will use alternative surfaces for creating works of art - materials that can't be purchased at an art supply store. Whiskey has painted directly onto a road sign that once marked the highway turnoff to Iwantja Arts and Craft Centre. The use of discarded metal objects has also been used by Anmatyerre artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye in Untitled, 1992, which is in the Gallery's collection. Yolŋu artist Gunybi Ganambarr who featured in Tarnanthi in 2019 pioneered the metal etching technique where unwanted road signs and metal from old water tanks were used as the surface for his work.

Explore works of art in Murrŋiny (see virtual exhibition). Compare these works by Yolŋu artists from Yirrkala to those created by Whiskey.
Tip: Look at Gäṉgän by Gunybi Ganambarr. You may also like to look at by Murrŋiny- a story of metal from the east at the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art in Darwin

Whiskey is from Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands roughly 1200km northwest of Adelaide and the Yolŋu artists are from Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Despite being located in very different regions of Australia, both artists are working with discarded metal. Why have these artists used road signs as the surface for their works? How are these works similar and different, conceptually as well as how they look?

Locate a discarded object or surface. It could be a piece of wood, cardboard, plastic or metal. Create a work of art on this surface which communicates something about where this object was found. Depending on the material you could paint on to it, or etch or carve into it.

Read more about Murrŋiny:
Murrŋiny - a story of metal from the east (includes virtual tour)New Arnhem Land art makes waves in debut exhibition

Whiskey's use of space in her paintings resembles comic strips. Create a comic strip painting about your family as hybrid-superheroes. Brainstorm the characteristics of people in your family. You might like to research existing superheroes and create a hybrid of these characters with people in your life - who is the Wonder Woman, Hulk or Joker in your family?

Whiskey's seven feminist icons are symbols of strength and resilience. Investigate a female role model in your life. It might be someone you know personally in your family or community or it could be someone who influences you from sport or popular culture. Create a work of art that pays tribute to this person, capturing their strength, resilience and character. You may even like to transform this person into a superhero.

Twenty four women artists from across the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, located in the northwest of South Australia, collaborated to paint a large canvas depicting the Seven Sisters story known as Kungkarangkalpa.

This painting is about the constellations known in the west as Orion and Pleiades. The sisters are the Pleiades constellation and Orion is said to be (a bad man). Wati Nyiru is forever chasing the sisters. According to the story, the seven sisters travel again and again from the sky to the earth to escape the persistent and unwanted attentions of Wati Nyiru.

They turn into their human form to hide, but he always finds them and they flee back to the sky. As Wati Nyiru is chasing the sisters he tries to catch them by using magic to create the most tempting kampurarpra (bush tomatoes) for the sisters to eat and the most beautiful Ili (fig) tree for them to camp under. The sisters however, are too clever for Wati Nyiru and outwit him. They go hungry and run through the night rather than be caught by him.

Every now and again one of the women would fall victim to his ways. It is said that he eventually captures the youngest sister, but with the help of the oldest sister, she escapes back to her sisters who are waiting for her. Eventually the sisters fly back into the sky to escape Wati Nyiru, reforming the constellation.

Making and Responding

Examine astronomical photographs of Pleiades. Compare these images to the painting Kungkarangkalpa - Seven Sisters. What similarities and differences do you notice?

Compare Kungkarangkalpa to Seven Sistas Sign by Whiskey. Why do you think these artists have captured this story? What are the messages these artists are trying to send to younger generations?

Research the feminist icons depicted in Whiskey's painting. Who are these women and why do you think Whiskey chose to feature them specifically in her Seven Sistas Sign? Provide examples to support your response.

Think about a tradition or belief that your parents or grandparents have passed down in your family. What are some things that are unique to your family? Create a painting that will help to keep your family tradition or belief strong for future generations.

Wati Nyiru is described as a 'bad man' in the Seven Sisters story. Brainstorm a list of characters in other stories that feature a villain or an antihero. What characteristics do these villains or 'bad men' share? Use your list of your characteristics as inspiration for your own villain or antihero.

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Discover the rich and diverse culture of Australia’s First Nations with Kumarninthi Cultural Education, founded by Tjimari Sanderson-Milera, an Aboriginal…

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Trent Hill is an Indigenous storyteller, educator and guide who has worked at Adelaide Botanic Garden for more than 20 years. His programs for Junior…

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Seeing works of art in situ and engaging with primary sources is an effective strategy for learning about the skills, techniques, materials and processes used by artists, and in turn can be used by students in their own work.

Sometimes seeing the detail in a painting or print, the texture of a surface or the scale of a sculpture can only be appreciated when in front of the work itself. Works of art are ideal platforms to talk about our collective history while simultaneously exploring what is happening in the world today.

Contact AGSA Education via email or T 8 8207 7033

Guides are currently in high demand and requests for Guided Tours in Term 3 (August and September) are now closed. Exceptions may be given to equity listed or regional schools, subject to availability.

We welcome Guided Tour requests from October onwards.

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Pre and post visit activities as well as how to read a wall label