Tarnanthi 2020: Open Hands Resource

This education resource highlights ten artists who feature in Tarnanthi 2020:Open Hands. It can be used as a starting point in the classroom for students to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures or as a companion to your Gallery visit.

Open Hands pays tribute to the work of senior artists who pass on vital cultural knowledge to younger generations as the future leaders of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Through the act of making, they channel deep connections to Country and culture as they relate knowledge and expertise, stories and experiences. Through a variety of media – including painting, works on paper, photography, moving image, sound installation, weaving, ceramics and sculpture – Open Hands honours the ongoing and often unseen work of women in communities to maintain culture.

The making and responding suggestions of this resource are linked to the key themes within each artist’s work and provide ideas that relate to the world of your students. Through this, students are invited to explore and compare cultural knowledge, beliefs and practices and develop multiple perspectives.

On a map of Australia, locate where each of the artists featured in Tarnanthi 2020: Open Hands is from. You might begin with the artists highlighted in this resource: Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael, Naomi Hobson, Trudy Inkamala, Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra and Betty Muffler.

Consider the environment, including the climate, where each of these artists lives and makes their works. What connection can you see between where they live and what they make?