Audiences in Broken Hill will experience the works and insights of a group of South Australian Aboriginal women artists when visual arts exhibition Saltbush Country continues its tour this month.
One of the major exhibitions in the Tarnanthi Festival (the Art Gallery of South Australia's award-winning program of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art), Country Arts SA's Saltbush Country is an innovative collection of new works profiling contemporary regional artists.
Visitors to Broken Hill City Art Gallery can expect to see weaving, painting, textiles and fibre work, large-scale installation and jewellery, expressing raw and personal connections to culture, community and Country.
Curated by Tarnanthi Regional curator Marika Davies, the exhibition is the result of a series of community workshops, mentoring, and professional development opportunities catering to prominent regional artists and supported by Country Arts SA and Tarnanthi.
The artists include Josephine Lennon (Mirning/Antikirinjara), Juanella Donovan (Adnyamathanha/Luritja/Lower Southern Arrernte), Marli Macumba (Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara), Deanna Newchurch (Narungga), Lynette Newchurch, (Narungga), Sandra Saunders (Ngarrindjeri/Buandig), and Heather Shearer (Arrernte).
South Australia's Arts minister, Andrea Michaels, said Saltbush Country is an important platform for reconciliation through arts and culture.
"Saltbush Country is a powerful example of arts organisations such as Country Arts SA and Tarnanthi collaborating in order to showcase the phenomenal talent of our regional First Nations artists," she said.
"I'm delighted that people across regional South Australia will have the chance to see these fantastic works for themselves."
Tarnanthi artistic director and Barkandji artist and curator Nici Cumpston said the exhibition speaks to contemporary First Nations culture in SA.
"The artists have been given the opportunity to identify how they can develop their practice to create new work for the exhibition," she said.
"The resulting works are ambitious and show exciting new directions for all the artists involved."
Country Arts SA chief executive Anthony Peluso said he was excited for the exhibition to tour across the state.
"We are proud to have commissioned these regional artists to tell their stories and to share this extraordinary exhibition with 10 communities across regional South Australia over the next few years," he said.
Saltbush Country provides a rare opportunity for audiences across regional South Australia to experience the works and worldviews of Aboriginal women artists practising independently in the state.
In this statewide touring exhibition, seven regional artists tell stories of their culture, community and connection to Country.
Often personal and occasionally raw, their work reflects the world as seen through their eyes - a contemporary articulation of Aboriginal life in regional South Australia.
Saltbush Country will exhibit at Broken Hill City Art Gallery from Friday May 8 to Sunday July 26.
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