Become a Museum Member! Museum Membership starts from as little as $50 per year. A South Australian Museum Membership will bring you even closer to one of the world’s most significant collections of Australian Aboriginal culture and art. Museum Members receive: • unlimited FREE VIP entry to all South Australian
Museum exhibitions
• exclusive access to unique Museum experiences
(including special family sleepover events at the Museum
and Member Mornings)
Nyarapayi Giles on her verandah in Tjukurla, © Tjarlirli Artists
• priority booking and Member discounts on special events
NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands
and activities
• 10% discount in the Museum Shop and Museum Café • reciprocal benefits with local and interstate museums • benefits with nominated South Australian businesses
Ngurra, in the spoken languages of the Ngaanyatjarra people of the Western Desert, translates roughly to ‘home.’ However, the term is far more complex than the definition offered by a simple translation. Ngurra means Country, camp, birthplace and belonging.
• monthly Members e-newsletters in your inbox. As a Member, you will be supporting the South Australian Museum as it strives to inspire in all people a wonder and curiosity about life on Earth. To find out more visit www.samuseum.sa.gov.au or contact membership@samuseum.sa.gov.au
13 October 2017–28 January 2018 FREE EXHIBITION AND PROGRAMS www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/NGURRA #MyNgurra
NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands is an exhibition that challenges conventional approaches to Aboriginal art and cultural expression. This is not a show about art, but rather a show about where that art comes from, and the homelands it speaks to. NGURRA is an expression of Ngaanyatjarra life and experience. It highlights the creativity, productivity, and ingenuity of Ngaanyatjarra people, not just through their art, but through their art of living. Cover image: Nyarapayi Giles, Warmurrungu, 2016 (detail) Image copyright Nyarapayi Giles, 2017, courtesy of Tjarlirli Art
NGURRA community programs Programs are subject to change
Opening weekend talks (free, no bookings required) Lunchtime talk Art and health in the Purple House When: Friday 13 October, 1pm Where: North Foyer, South Australian Kristabell Porter in her home in Warakurna Museum Copyright Warakurna Artists, 2017, courtesy of Warakurna Artists The Purple House Photographers Kristabell Porter and Casey Ayres is one of the most important Aboriginal organisations in Australia. Pioneering new models of Aboriginal health care, Purple House delivers dialysis to people on Country, both through clinics and through mobile dialysis centres like the Purple Truck. Many of the desert artists who feature in TARNANTHI rely on the Purple House to keep them in Country, rather than tied to machines in towns or cities far away from their families. Indeed, it was desert artists who founded the Purple House to ensure they could control their own futures. Come and learn about this remarkable story, and of the important connections between art and heath, from Sarah Brown, CEO of Purple House and 2017 Australian Nurse of the Year.
Curator’s talk NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands When: Friday 13 October, 1.30 pm Where: NGURRA exhibition, South Australian Museum Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, Curator of NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, gives a tour of the exhibition and reflects on his experience of working in the Lands.
Floor talks When: Saturday 14 October, 11:30am and 2.30pm Where: NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands exhibition space Join artists, storytellers, curators and art centre managers for a series of short talks about NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. 11.30am-12:00pm Winston Green, Patrick Green and Simon Butler talk about the journey to Kurlkurta. 12.00pm-12.30pm Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, Curator of NGURRA: Home in the Ngaayatjarra Lands gives a tour of the exhibition, and reflects on his experience working in the Lands. 12.30pm - 1.00pm Ngaanyatjarra photographer Kristabell Porter talks about Ngaanyatjarra youth culture and self-expression, in conversation with Emilia Galatis (Ngaanyatjarra Youth Focus). 1.00pm - 1.30pm Lizzie Ellis looks at visual storytelling practices in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, the ways young people are telling their stories through technology, and shares some of her research into language and storytelling. 1.30pm – 2.00pm Join Papulankutja artists as they speak about life in community Sharing NGURRA When: Sunday 15 October, 10am – 11.30pm Where: NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands exhibition space Join artists, storytellers, curators and art centre managers for a series of short talks related to NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. 10.00am-10:30 am Join Pamela Hogan and Mel Henderson to hear about wiltja building projects and soap sculptures 10.30pm-11.00 am Join Dorothy Ward, Nancy Carnegie, Nola Campbell and Jane Menzies to hear about life in Patjarr, from the Early Days to the here and now.
Opening weekend workshops and demonstrations (free) Family drop-in activity: paint a pannikin When: Saturday 14 October, 10.00am – 3.00pm Image courtesy Warakurna Artists Where: Museum front lawns In the desert, sitting around the campfire for a nice cup of tea in an enamel pannikin is a sign of feeling at home, which is what the NGURRA exhibition is all about! Visit the pannikin painting station to share symbols of the place you call home on a desert-style enamel teacup. This is your chance to create your own souvenir to take home.
Maruku Arts: Punu and Walka boards When: Saturday 14 October, 10.30am – 12.00pm Sunday 15 October, 10.30am – 12.00pm Where: Museum front lawns Join Maruku artists Cynthia Burke and Dallas Smythe to see how punu (carving) and walka boards are created. Ngaanyatjarra people have made artefacts, weapons and tools for thousands of years. These same skills are now used in the creation of beautiful artworks that speak to the concept of ngurra, and all of the plants, animals, water sources that have sustained life on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
Wilurarra Creative Ngaanyatjarra photo booth When: Saturday 14 October and Sunday 15 October, during opening hours Where: South Australian Museum, main foyer Step into the desert landscape of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands and take a selfie! Wilurarra Creative, an organisation based in Warburton will be on site at the South Australian Museum offering you an opportunity to meet with young Ngaanyatjarra people and take a virtual journey to their sense of ngurra.
Tjanpi Desert Weavers with their work ‘Early Days Family’, 2016. Copyright Warakurna Artists and Tjanpi Desert Weavers, 2017
Cynthia Burke carving punu in Warakurna Copyright Warakurna Artists, 2017, courtesy of Warakurna Artists Photographer Casey Ayres
Basket weaving workshop with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers When: Saturday 14 October, 10:30am – 12:30pm and 1:30pm – 3:30pm Sunday 15 October, 10:30am – 12:30pm and 1:30pm – 3:30pm Where: Museum front lawns, under the marquee Bookings essential, www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/NGURRA-programs Join Tjanpi Desert Weavers, traveling with highly skilled artists from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia, and learn how to create a basket with grasses sourced from the Western Desert. Suitable for ages 12+