First Nations artists and curators are invited to join ACCA’s First Nations Forum on Monday 28 August at 5pm.
The discussion will be launched by Samantha Yates in collaboration with leading interstate and local First Nations curators and thinkers including Tina Baum, Jessica Clark, Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, and Rebekah Raymond. The event will offer a space for First Nations curator participants to connect and discuss various lines of inquiries and contemporary concerns within their practices.
This is a closed in-person session dedicated to First Peoples participants and will be followed by a public symposium on Tuesday 29 August, 5:30pm. Read more and book here.
Contributor Bios
Sam Yates is the Producer of Tarnanthi, supporting the artistic vision of Tarnanthi’s Artistic Director, Nici Cumpston. Sam was previously at Country Arts SA, where she was the First Nations Arts and Culture Manager. She led the development of the organisation’s Reconciliation Action Plans, which involved creating policy and increasing First Nations employment and representation across the organisation. She was also a Producer on the Wild Dog Project, a multi-year cultural maintenance project following the trade routes and storylines of the dingo creation story across Australia, which is part of Tarnanthi. She has English, Irish, Scottish and Aboriginal (Taungurung) heritage.
Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/pallawah woman currently living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm (Melbourne). Jessica is a curator of contemporary art, a researcher, writer and arts manager with a background in art history and art education. She currently holds the position of Yalingwa Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Her independent curatorial practice is informed and grounded by an understanding of the interrelationship between life, materiality, and place. Recent independent and collaborative exhibition projects include: Between Waves (2023) at ACCA, breathing space (2021) and one (&) another (2020) at Margaret Lawrence Gallery, In and of this place (2021) at Benalla Art Gallery [Online], and Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art (2021-2023) national touring exhibition. She has recently completed a curatorial practice led PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Tina Baum, Gulumirrgin-Larrakia/Wardaman/Karajarri peoples, has over 30 years working in Australian Museums and Galleries. She is a writer and the Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia since 2005. She curated the Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, 2017, the Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia, 2021-23 national and international touring exhibition and the Emerging Elders exhibition, 2009. Baum is a recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts 2022-23 International Curators Program Asia Pacific Triennial x TarraWarra Biennial, the 2021-22 Art Monthly Australasia, Indigenous Voices Program (writing) as a mentor, the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Leaders Program, 2020-22, and the inaugural British Council Accelerate Programme to the UK, 2009. She is a mentor to alumni, presenter and organiser of the NGA and Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership and Fellowship Programs since 2010. She is passionate about embedding Indigenous voices, perspectives and truth telling and Indigenising best practice methodologies within Museum and Galleries throughout Australia and internationally by reasserting Indigenous traditional language, cultural authority and agency.
Glenn Iseger-Pilkington (Nhanda and Nyoongar Peoples/ Dutch/ Scottish) is Curator of Visual Arts at Fremantle Art Centre in Walyalup | Fremantle, Western Australia. Glenn undertook his formal art training at the School of Contemporary Art, Edith Cowan University, majoring in Printmaking and has worked within the visual arts sector over the last eighteen years as an arts worker, curator, advisor, and advocate for artists. Glenn has held the roles of Senior Curator (FORM: building a state of creativity), Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture (South Australian Museum), Curator Content Development, (New Museum Project | Western Australian Museum) and Associate Curator of Indigenous Objects and Photography (Art Gallery of Western Australia). Glenn’s most recent curatorial projects are ‘Other Horizons: Atong Atem | Hayley Millar Baker| Jasmine Togo-Brisby,’ ‘Marawar-ak | From the West: Contemporary Art from Western Australia, ‘Jila Kujarra | Two Snakes Dreaming‘ and ‘Undertow’, all presented at Fremantle Arts Centre.
Rebekah Raymond is a proud Arabana, Kala Lagaw Ya, and Wuthathi woman from the ‘Top End’, growing up across Limilngan-Wulna Country in Humpty Doo, and Larrakia Country in Darwin. She has worked across independent projects and institutions as a curator, educator, writer, and editor. Rebekah currently works at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory as the Curator of Aboriginal Art and Material Culture. In this role, she works with artists from across the continent on projects such as the annual Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (Telstra NATSIAA).
