Image: Gulumbu Yunupiŋu, Gumatj clan, Yolŋu people, Ganyu-stars (detail), 2006, Yirrkala, northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Earth pigments on stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta), 126.5 x 85.0 cm. South Australian Government Grant 2007, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Courtesy the artist and Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in Adelaide has named "Yunupiŋu: Seven Sisters" among the first highlights of the 2027 Tarnanthi Festival, its program of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. The exhibition is scheduled from October 22, 2027, to January 16, 2028, in Galleries 22, 23 and 25, with free entry.
The gallery describes the show as a landmark presentation of Yolŋu women's art and culture. It is the first major survey to bring together the work of seven sisters from one of Australia's leading artistic families: Gaymala, Gulumbu, Barrupu, Nyapanyapa, Djerrkŋu, Dhopiya and Djakaŋu Yunupiŋu. Paintings, sculpture, works on paper and moving image will be drawn from public and private collections.
Rather than treating the family as a single school, the exhibition sets out each sister's own practice and the stories carried by her particular style. At times the sisters painted stories linked to Djulpan, the Seven Sisters star group known elsewhere as the Pleiades, and together they came to embody that story. According to AGSA, this shared subject points to cultural ties connecting Yolŋu Country with Asia and the wider cosmos.
The show also includes a group of works by the sisters' father, the Gumatj cultural leader Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu, recognizing the ancestral stories he passed on to his daughters and the influence of his legacy across generations.
"Yunupiŋu: Seven Sisters" is a collaboration between AGSA and the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala, northeast Arnhem Land, developed in close consultation with the Yunupiŋu family.
The announcement came alongside wider news for Tarnanthi, which has now run for ten years. AGSA has appointed the Noongar curator and artist Zali Morgan as the festival's artistic director and announced new partnerships with BHP and with the South Australian Government, which becomes the festival's principal partner under a four-year commitment. A second 2027 highlight, "Melting Point: Wati Wai!", developed by Mimili Maku Arts, brings together Mimili men who collect, melt and cast salvaged aluminium car parts on Country.
