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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Aligned with the Australian Curriculum, this publication encourages educators to prioritise artists and their stories, make connections to the lives of students at all levels and expose them to the diversity of art made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. The 316-page second volume builds on the success the 156-page first volume which sold over 5,000 copies nationwide.

The second volume adds new content, features over 50 First Nation artists and writers and provides more examples of classroom projects and case studies nationwide from reception to Year 11. This publication highlights how works of art can be used as a starting point for learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture through a variety of learning areas including English, Design, History and Science.
AGSA's education programs are supported by the Government of South Australia through the Department for Education. Tarnanthi is presented in partnership with BHP and with the support of the Government of South Australia.

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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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Developing Visual Literacy, Civics and Citizenship, Arts and Plants and 2025 Quiz night

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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AGSA have teamed up with our neighbours to deliver a suite of professional learning covering visual arts, critical and creative thinking, science, sustainability and civics and citizenship.

The package includes:

- Developing Visual Literacy (AGSA), Friday 10 January

- C ivics and Citizenship (Parliament House and Radical Textiles - part 1 & 2), Monday 13 January, full day.

- Art and Plants through a First Nations Lens - where AGSA and Adelaide Botanic Gardens overlap, Tuesday 14 January

- Access to online resource 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art in the Classroom'

- PLUS a free ticket to AGSA's Teacher Quiz Night: Full Disclosure on Friday 17 January, 5-7pm

If you attend all events, this totals 20 hours of profession learning - that's $18.50per hour if PD!

$370 preservice and Department for Education Teachers / $400 all other educators

Bookings will open soon.

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Revive in 2025: Professional Learning Package

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Join us for a series of professional development sessions in January

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Friday 6 December

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Celebrate the end of school year (almost) with us for Radical Textiles Educator Briefing with curators Rebecca Evans and Leigh Robb. This exhibition will run until 30 March 2025, so there is plenty of time to bring your students to the Gallery - get ready to start your term 1 planning.

From William Morris to Sonia Delaunay, Radical Textiles celebrates the cutting-edge innovations, enduring traditions and bodies of shared knowledge that have been folded into fabric and cloth over the past 150 years. Showcasing the work of 100 makers, artists, designers and activists, this major exhibition draws on AGSA's international, Australian and First Nations collections of textiles and fashion, augmented by sculpture, painting, photography and the moving image.

Following the curator talk join us for drinks and nibbles and get a sneak peek of the 2025 program. This event will be held in conjunction with First Friday so feel free to stay longer, explore the Gallery or relax in the courtyard with colleagues and friends.

Schedule

4.30pm - 5pm - Drinks and nibbles.

5pm - Curator talk in the Radford Auditorium

6pm onwards - Explore Radical Textiles independently, ticket to the exhibition is included.

More

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Celebrate the end of school year (almost) with us for Radical Textiles Educator Briefing with curators Rebecca Evans and Leigh Robb. This exhibition will run until 30 March 2025, so there is plenty of time to bring your students to the Gallery - get ready to start your term 1 planning.

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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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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Extend your Start experience at home with these activities

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Resources

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Resources

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art

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Incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art into your classroom

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artist Videos and Talks

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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While we prioritise 'long looking' at works of art, a wall label can provide you with some valuable information about an artist, where they are from, their age and where and when the work of art was made. This information can be 'drip fed' into discussion or contextualised further in your classrooms. For example, you may locate the artist's language group on a map of Australia or discover what year a work was made and investigate what else was happening in the world at the time the work of art was made. Wall labels will include the following information:

Artist

Language group

Where the work of art was made

Artist's date of birth

Medium (what the work of art is made from)

Dimensions

Credit line - this relates to how the work of art was acquired

Extended label; sometimes, an extended label, which provides some specific information about the work or the artist, might be included.

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Jonathan Jones and Sophie Honess | My Country

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Ray Mudjandi was born in Garramilla (Darwin) in the year 2000 and grew up between Djibiorrk in Kakadu National Park and Katherine in the Northern Territory. His family are Mirarr people from Kakadu and Western Arrernte from Central Australia. Mudjandi's work expresses his Bininj culture and identity as well as his love of pop culture, contemporary film, comics and superheroes.

Mudjandi creates superhero character-based works of art, complete with intricate narratives and epic sagas of good versus evil, often in response to his surroundings and issues that affect him and his community. Mudjandi lives on Mirarr land, his mother's Country, at Djirrbiyak outstation in Kakadu National Park. He draws inspiration in equal parts from both modern popular culture and the culturally significant djang (ancestral power) stories from Kakadu and Western Arnhem Land.

In March 2023, Mudjandi travelled down to Barrow Creek, Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges) and Ntaria (Hermannsburg) to meet family on his father's side for the first time. Mudjandi connected with family, Country, artists and Central Desert culture. During this trip Mudjandi developed ideas and sketches for a new superhero, Black Speed, Mudjandi's latest superhero, who holds lightening in his body as djang (sacred power), represented on bark and relief sculpture.

Mudjandi described the new character's origin story to his nanna;
Black Speed is black, wears yellow and orange. He's got big nose like Bininj (people of western Arnhem Land), like this one. 'Is that a shooting star or something? Let's go and check.' They walked to where that rock fell. It was red and gold, that tiny shiny rock. Black Speed, he touched it and it went to his heart, all the electricity. That electricity went everywhere in his body. It went through him like electric shock, through the veins and he was electrocuted, like in the brain! He couldn't move his arms or legs, paralysed. 'Why you got to touch that rock?' his stepbrother said. They called the clinic mob. In the clinic they did blood test, they looked with binoculars, went inside, but the blood was different colour. He see like round ones, like blood cells, and they were spinning around and he see lightning flashing in the blood. The scientist is thinking, they thinking like he's electric. Scientist tell the mother, 'This boy is infected with something', but the next day he was OK. There's no pain, no anything. He is back to normal. He woke up next morning and went to school with his brothers. At recess, they eat and go and play. One kid, he plays basketball, and they asked him to pass him the ball, and Black Speed he shoots the basketball in the goal, so fast and so far on top of the air. He looked up and he started freaking out, like 'Oh, did you see? Did you see?' And everyone saw! That lightning is in his body and gave him Superpower.
Mudjandi's Nanna, Maureen Campbell, said: 'In our language, for Black Speed we say Maru Wala '.

Fun Fact

Do you want to be an artist, but think that maybe you are too young? Well, Mudjandi had his first exhibition at the age of 16 years, the works would later be acquired by Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. More recently, his work was highly commended in the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D award at the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Since childhood, Mudjandi has loved cartoons, comics, video games and characters. A character archetype or trope are broad character types such a hero, ruler, outlaw or jester. Investigate the different type of charters that exist in narratives, TV, movies etc. Select your favourite movie or TV show and identify the archetypes of each character. You might like to watch Cleverman, an ABC TV sci-fi show that explores Aboriginal origin stories in a contemporary context, and identify the archetypes here too.

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 Mudjandi. What characteristics do these works of art share? Tip: Look at the work of Kaylene Whiskey and Brian Robinson to get started.

Villain or hero? Brainstorm a list of characters in stories who are villains or heroes. What characteristics do they share? For example, Batman is considered an anti-hero and Maleficent a villain, but they share similar physical characteristics (eg. Pointy features, black clothing and sharp weapons).

Silhouettes and shapes are useful in identifying and designing characters. Sometimes we can identify a villain or a hero based only on their silhouette. Select three well known comic characters. Typically, most characters are based on a circle, triangle or square. Identify these shapes within the characters - usually there is a hierarchy with one shape that dominates, and others are an accent or smaller.

Captain Headland versus The Fisherman is a comic book by Layne Dhu-Dickie who was born in 2004 in South Headland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Dhu-Dickie's heritage lies with the Banjiyma people. His one-off characters share moral codes and life unique to the Pilbara. When he was aged seven, he began drawing characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and would spend time reading his Dad's comics. Both Mudjandi and Dhu-Dickie are young artists who draw inspiration from superheroes and comic book characters. Compare the work by both artists. How are their works similar and how are they different?

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? How would you use your power for good? Create a symbol or icon to identify your superpower, like Mudjandi did with his lightning bolt.
Write and illustrate the origin story of you as a superhero. How did you get your power?

Is there an issue or concern affecting your local area or community at the moment that you could use to eliminate this problem? Write and illustrate a story featuring you and your superpower.

Initially when Mudjandi took an interest in art, he was learning from some of the senior Bininj painters, working on bark. At the same time, he was drawing characters - overtime these two ways of making art have fused, with Mudjandi now painting his characters and onto bark. Find something old and something new. It could be an item of clothing, recycled material etc. Create a painting that merges these two things together.

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Ray Mudjandi was born in Garramilla (Darwin) in the year 2000 and grew up between Djibiorrk in Kakadu National Park and Katherine in the Northern Territory. His family are Mirarr people from Kakadu and Western Arrernte from Central Australia. Mudjandi's work expresses his Bininj culture and identity as well as his love of pop culture, contemporary film, comics and superheroes.

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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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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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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Nyunmiti Burton (b. 1960) is an artist, teacher and community leader from Amata in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, a community situated south of Uluru close to the Northern Territory border, in northern South Australia. Born in Alice Springs and having grown up in Pukatja (Ernabella), Burton moved to Amata aged twenty where she took up the role of Aboriginal Education Worker.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Sophie (@sophie_honess) • Instagram photos and videos

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1,567 Followers, 1,165 Following, 697 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Sophie (@sophie_honess)