Image: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Noongar curator and artist Zali Morgan has been announced as Artistic Director.
The appointment coincides with new partnerships involving the South Australian Government and BHP. The South Australian Government will be recognised as Principal Partner of the Tarnanthi Festival through a $4 million investment over four years, while BHP is named as a new partner.
The Tarnanthi Festival will run from 22 October 2027 to 16 January 2028. Its first announced 2027 program highlights are the major survey exhibition ‘Yunupiŋu: Seven Sisters’, developed in collaboration with Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre and the Yunupiŋu family, and ‘Melting Point: Wati Wai!’, an ambitious project developed by Mimili Maku Arts and initiated by Yankunytjatjara artist and cultural leader Robert Fielding and the Mimili Maku Wati Studio.
‘Yunupiŋu: Seven Sisters’ will bring together, for the first time in a major survey, the work of seven sisters from one of Australia’s most important artistic families: Gaymala, Gulumbu, Barrupu, Nyapanyapa, Djerrkŋu, Dhopiya and Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu. At times, each artist painted stories connected to the Djulpan, the Seven Sisters star group, or Pleiades, and together they embodied the Seven Sisters story.
Based near Boorloo/Perth, Morgan is a Noongar woman with ancestral connections to Whadjuk, Balladong and Wilman Boodjar, and is currently Curator of the Carrolup Collection at John Curtin Gallery in Western Australia. The festival’s regional program will return as part of the 2027 Tarnanthi Festival, presented in partnership with Country Arts SA and curated by Tarnanthi Regional Curator Marika Davies; a major new exhibition will premiere in Thalpiri/Port Pirie, with further venues to be announced.
