Tarnanthi on Tour: Kulata Tjuta

Tarnanthi on Tour: Kulata Tjuta (Many Spears), was a major touring exhibition of new works by artists from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia. Organised in conjunction with the Art Gallery of South Australia and the APY Art Centre Collective, this exhibition showcased paintings and photographs alongside a stunning installation of spears and tools in wood and cast bronze. The exhibition presented a rare opportunity for European audiences to experience the creative scope, adaptive genius and artistic dynamism of Aṉangu culture today.

Titled Kulata Tjuta (Many Spears), this celebration of contemporary Aṉangu art referenced the long-running Kulata Tjuta project of cultural maintenance in which senior Aṉangu artists and leaders share cultural knowledge and skills with younger generations.

The exhibition – with the involvement of thirty-four artists from APY art centres – was originally created specifically for the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, the capital of the French region of Brittany, with its season coinciding with Tarnanthi 2020 in Adelaide. Kulata Tjuta later formed part of a broader series of exhibitions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Musées d’Art et d’Histoire in Le Havre, Normandy, France. The latest iteration of Kulata Tjuta presented a selection of major works from the original exhibition, involving fourteen artists, for new audiences at the Australian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.

Accompanying Kulata Tjuta is a trilingual publication in Pitjantjatjara, English and French, produced by AGSA.

Kulata Tjuta has been devised with support from the Government of South Australia, APY Art Centre Collective, and the Art Gallery of South Australia through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art with Principal Partner BHP.