Exhibitions Open to the Public
Once Known
Opened for the first time at the Old Perth Boys’ School, Once Known presents a selection of meticulous reproductions of the delicate and treasured artworks created by Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s.
Kattidj Nagãr [Peaceful Quiet Reflection]
Kattidj Nagãr features artworks and personal objects created by the children who were forcibly removed from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s
A call and response across the ocean
Part of Perth Festival 2026, witness redefined histories through story, scent and song.
Our World in Photos
Bardi Jawi children aged 8-15 present their curation of Our World in Photos, produced through immersive, on-Country photovoice workshops in the very remote West Australian community of Ardyaloon. Their photographic stories explore what well-being means to them, through their own voices and vision, shaped by kinship, culture, Country and daily life.
Upcoming Events
Lunchtime Panel Discussion
Join us at John Curtin Gallery for a Lunchtime Panel Discussion on the topic of ‘Oceans of heritage: connections, interruptions and continuities’, with Patricia Ryder, Tod Jones, and Thor Kerr.
Twilight Hours at JCG
Open until 7pm, visit us for a twilight viewing at JCG
Morning Dialogue: Curating Our World in Photos
Join us for a dialogue exploring Bardi Jawi children’s perspectives on wellbeing, through a photovoice model amplifying children as both artists and knowledge holders.
Film Screening: Before 1770
Join us for an exclusive screening of ‘Before 1770’ to mark the end of our current Perth Festival exhibition, ‘A call and response across the ocean’.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Reko Rennie: OA_RR
Reko Rennie: OA_RR blends urban car culture, ancestral motifs, and personal memory into bold, cinematic experiences.
Christopher Pease: Terra Nullius
Christopher Pease: Terra Nullius transforms a legal fiction of dispossession into a vivid assertion of Noongar sovereignty, resilience, and enduring connection to Country.
Regional Arts Triennial – Radical Futures
Focusing on collective imagination, Radical Futures reveals aspirations for tomorrow.
Find us on Instagram
Exclusive screening of Before 1770! 🎬
Celebrate the end of our Perth Festival exhibition, A call and response across the ocean, and join us for a screening of this feature documentary!
Through vivid storytelling and immersive re-enactments, Before 1770 delves into themes of transglobal colonisation and cultural memory, offering a powerful perspective on the historical friendships and kin ties between northern Australia and Makassar.
Event Details:
🗓️ Sunday 3 May 2026
⏰ 1:30pm – 4pm
Free event, open to the public
For more information, and to register, head to the link in bio! 💛
@perthfest @thaniapetersen @before1770 @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music @curtinbfagrads @perthartlist @universityartmuseumsaustralia
#before1770 #filmscreening #university
Join us for another Lunchtime Talk! ✨
This special panel discussion will explore how heritage is practiced, interrupted and regained from various views across the Indian Ocean.
Join Wajarri Nyarlu/Menang heritage expert Patricia Ryder, Geographer and heritage scholar Tod Jones and Media scholar Thor Kerr as they contest dominant narratives about Australia’s geographical and cultural isolation through exploring connections, disconnections and reconnections across the Indian Ocean.
Details:
🗓️ Wednesday 29 April.
📍 John Curtin Gallery
⏰ 1.30pm - 2.30pm
Free event, open to the public.
🔗 Register via link in bio!
The JCG Lunchtime Talks is a mid-week series that invites speakers from diverse disciplines to share their research, practices, and perspectives in response to the gallery’s exhibition programming. These informal sessions offer a welcoming, collegial space to explore ideas, spark dialogue, and engage with the themes and questions shaping contemporary visual culture and artistic practice.
📸 - @marnie__richardson
@curtinbfagrads @curtinalumni @perthartlist @perthfest @abdi.karya @thaniapetersen
Two weeks left! 🫨
The final weeks have arrived to experience the rhythms, stories and scents of the Indian Ocean, and witness the reunion of friendships and kin ties severed through transglobal acts of colonisation.
A call and response across the ocean will leave John Curtin Gallery on Sunday 3 May!
Through immersive installations, film, sound and historical works, A call and response across the ocean invites visitors to trace connections across continents and reflect on the enduring legacies of cultural exchange and resilience.
🌊 Histories do not stay silent.
📍 John Curtin Gallery. Free, open to the public
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio!
@perthfest @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music @berndt.museum @curtinbfagrads @skinnyfish_music
#johncurtingallery #curtinuniversity #perthart #artgallery
What wellbeing looks like on Country, through the lens of Bardi Jawi children! 📸
Currently nestled in our Access Gallery the Our World in Photos exhibition is hand curated by Bardi Jawi children aged 8-15 from the very remote West Australian community of Ardyaloon.
These photographic stories explore what well-being means to them, through their own voices and vision, shaped by kinship, culture, Country and daily life.
We are not observing their creativity but encountering their perspectives about what matters. When we are no longer speaking for them but with them, new pathways for dialogue are made possible. 💛
Exhibition details:
🗓 4 March – 3 May
📍 John Curtin Gallery, Access Gallery.
Free entry
Proudly supported by - @curtinuniversity , @telethon7 and One Arm Point RCS
Since 2023, Curtin University’s School of Population Health and the Ardyaloon community have co-developed a strengths-based photovoice model to explore and share children’s perspectives on well-being. Underpinned by research and participatory processes, forty-five on-Country workshops and 17 dialogue events have reached 133 children. Producing over 200 photographic stories, children’s insights have informed new learning resources based on their priorities. Strategic exhibits include Government House Perth (2024), Rural Health West, Aboriginal Health Conference (2025), and an international debut at St Francis Xavier gallery, Nova Scotia Canada (2026).
John Curtin Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which this work was created – the Bardi Jawi Peoples. We give respect to the Elders, past, present and emerging, and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We honour their connection with land, waters and community.
🔗 For further information visit the link in our bio!
Pause, contemplate, and reconnect with yourself and your collective history. 🧘
Map your inner ocean at our second yin yoga and sound bath session on Wednesday 22 April!
This unique experience features gentle yin yoga paired with a calming sound bath, guiding you to reflect deeply on your personal journey through the past, present, and future. Hosted by JCG’s Education Coordinator, Mel Macaulay (@__melmacaulay__), and Sound Journey Facilitator, Anita Emor (@emora_suara_sound), the experience encourages participants to pause, contemplate, and reconnect with themselves and their collective histories.
🗓️ Wednesday 22 April, 2026
⏰ 5:00pm – 6:30pm
📍 John Curtin Gallery
🔗 Register via the link in bio, registrations essential.
Anita Emor has Makassan heritage and sings in language from North Sulawesi as part of the sound bath experience.
📸 - @sharonb.art
@curtinsports @perthartlist @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @curtinlifeaustralia @universityartmuseumsaustralia
Encounter memory, connection, and the tides of Country.
Bumpy’s (@bumpymusic_ )Maambakoort (2025) celebrates the acclaimed soul artist’s homecoming to ancestral saltwaters, and honours her late Nan, Rose Whitehurst, who compiled the first Noongar dictionary. Its rolling structure mirrors the ocean’s tides, inviting reflection on memory, belonging, and connection to Country. ✨
Laurel Nannup’s First Contact (2016) draws on Noongar memory and history, evoking ancestral spirits and storytelling to honour Noongar life and the Stolen Generation. In Noongar Nyitting (Dreaming), the spirit transforms into a bird after death, and the white sails of the ships were understood as the wings of ancestral spirits returning from the sea.
Susan Flavell’s Landscape with Whirlpools (tsunami) (2013–2023) transforms a single textile into a turbulent seascape of found objects, fabrics, porcelain, and ink, exploring the fantastic, the monstrous, and the mythical, reflecting grief, dreams, and the shadow self. 🌊 @susanflavellart
📍 Visit John Curtin Gallery’s Atrium as part of A call and response across the ocean to learn even more about each artwork.
A call and response across the ocean is on show until May 3! @perthfest
🔗 More info via link in bio.
📸- @marnie__richardson
@curtinalumni @perthartlist @curtinbfagrads
7,448 fragrant organza bags, each cut, filled, and scented, all with the help of the Perth community. 👏🍃
Thania Petersen’s Rampies sny connects Perth to a lineage of memory, migration, and devotion, its an installation shaped by many hands and infused with “smells that recall a thousand places.”
Previously realised in Cape Town and Tunisia, Petersen’s immersive artwork is named after a unique Cape Muslim tradition. Women cut and scent fragrant leaves with oils and incense, packaging them into cloth bundles, accompanied by poetry, song, and blessings.
Symbolising devotion and cultural heritage, the ritual honours the birth of Prophet Muhammad. “Rampies sny” is a combination of Malay and Afrikaans words: Bunga Rampai is a Malay term, meaning fragrant flowers/leaves; rampies is from the Malay word rampai translating as mixture and sny is Afrikaans, meaning cut.
This is a celebration that speaks of love, whilst invoking the lands from which Petersen’s ancestors were forcibly taken.
A huge thank you to all who came to help create this stunningly impactful installation! 💛
Installation information:
Thania Petersen
Rampies sny, 2022-2026
Organza bags, citrus leaves smoked with frankincense, essential oils, dimensions variable.
@thaniapetersen @perthfest @perthartlist @curtinlifeaustralia @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music @curtinbfagrads @curtinguild
We are excited to be taking part in this year’s Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival!
Explore 139 St Georges Terrace throughout April to take part in truth talks, exhibition tours, workshops and drop-in sessions!
🗓️ 1 April to 30 April 2026.
📍 139 St Georges Terrace (Old Perth Boys’ School), Perth.
✨ Witness truth telling firsthand and enter a space where shared history can be confronted honestly at our Once Known Truth Talks series.
✨ Register for a free guided tour of Once Known at Perth Old Boys’ School every Tuesday and Friday throughout April (excludes public holidays).
✨ Children and children-at-heart are invited to take part in our free Sensory Play Drop-In Sessions and Badge Making Workshop, inspired by beautiful Noongar Country.
RSVP | Free events, registration required.
🔗For specific event and activity times see link in Bio!
Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival is supported by @cityofperth 🙌
Once Known is proudly supported by: @bfplperth @lotterywest @inside_bhp @colgateuniversity and #navigators
Step into a space where land, sea, and memory intertwine.
Kelsey Ashe’s Land of a Thousand Myths invites you into a layered exploration of cultural hybridity, ancestral memory, and myth-making. A journey across nine wooden canvases, the wax-etched textures tell the story of the erosive power of sea and sun, while reimagining Celtic convict and migratory histories through a contemporary lens. 🌊
Brian Robinson’s and on the fifth day the waters swarmed with sea creatures, weaves Zenadth Kes maritime knowledge, ancestral symbols, and playful visual allegories into an awe-inducing wall-based sculpture. Robinson examines the moral and psychological legacies of colonialism and the evolving identity of Zenadth Kes peoples. ✨
📍 Visit John Curtin Gallery’s Atrium as part of A call and response across the ocean and immerse yourself in this dialogue of land, sea, and memory.
A call and response across the ocean is on show until May 3!
🔗More info via link in bio
📸 - Image by Sharon Baker
@cbfagrads @curtinalumni @perthfest @perthartlist
✨ Curator Tour with Lia McKnight
Join JCG Curator, Lia McKnight for a guided tour of our Perth Festival exhibition, A call and response across the ocean.
📅Sunday 22 March 2026
⏰2pm – 3pm
📍John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University
Free event
This exhibition brings together living histories of the Indian Ocean in imagery, scents and sounds, reuniting friendships and kin ties that were severed through transglobal acts of colonisation.
This reconnection offers a vision of the world in which generosity, empathy and cross-cultural collaboration can begin to heal the wounds of the past. 💛
🔗 Register via link in bio!
@perthfest @perthartlist @curtinlifeaustralia @universityartmuseumsaustralia @curtinbfagrads @curtinguild @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music
Twilight hours are back! 🌝 (next Thursday)
Join us next Thursday 19 March at John Curtin Gallery while we stay open until 7pm. ✨
Experience the magic of art … after dark and Indulge in our @perthfest 2026 exhibition, A call and response across the ocean!
Take advantage of FREE PARKING from 4.30pm 🙌💛
Why not make it an evening and explore eateries located across @curtin_exchange.
📸 - @marnie__richardson
@curtinguild @curtinbfagrads @universityartmuseumsaustralia @perthartlist @explore_curtin @curtinlifeaustralia @thaniapetersen @abdi.karya @skinnyfish_music
#johncurtingallery #art #perthexhibition
What can oceans reveal about Australia’s connections with Asia? 💭
Join historian Vannessa Hearman for a lunchtime talk exploring the Timor Sea as a space of movement, memory, and exchange between Northern Australia, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste.
Looking both ways: The Timor Sea and Australia’s entanglements with Asia -
📅 Wednesday 18 February 2026
⏰ 12:30pm – 1:30pm
📍 John Curtin Gallery (Building 200A)
Free event, open to the public
Drawing on place-based research across coastlines, lagoons, mangroves, and ports, Hearman reflects on colonisation, maritime borders, and how communities remember and memorialise the past.
🔗 RSVP via link in bio!
@curtinbfagrads
#JohnCurtinGallery #CurtinUniversity #LunchtimeTalk #TimorSea #HistoryTalk
Locations
John Curtin Gallery Curtin University
Building 200A Curtin University, Kent Street
Bentley, Western Australia 6102
Phone: 08 9266 4155
Open Mon to Fri 10:00 – 5:00pm and Sun 12:00 – 4:00pm
Once Known – A Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling exhibition
Presented at the Old Perth Boys’ School
Curtin 139 St Georges Terrace,
Perth, Western Australia 6000
11:00am – 4:00pm
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (closed Wednesdays and Weekends)
