Please join us for the Yalingwa Curatorial Symposium, in association with ACCA’s current exhibition Between Waves featuring keynote presentations by leading First Nations curators Tina Baum, Rebekah Raymond, Maree Clarke, Sam Yates and Jessica Clark followed by an in conversation.
Contributor Bios
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.
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).
Maree Clarke is a Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti, and Boon Wurrung woman from North-West Victoria, and a multidisciplinary visual artist. Clarke is a pivotal figure in the reclamation of southeast Australian Aboriginal art practices, reviving elements of Aboriginal culture that were lost – or lying dormant – over the period of colonisation, as well as a leader in nurturing and promoting the diversity of contemporary southeast Aboriginal artists. Clarke’s creative and cultural practice centres collaboration and explores the customary ceremonies, rituals and language of her ancestors.
