What's On at John Curtin Gallery

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!

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

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

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

Slow Making Afternoon with Jacky Cheng ✨
 
Join artist Jacky Cheng for a gentle, hands-on workshop at John Curtin Gallery that invites slow making, conversation, and reflection.
 
📅 Sunday 15 March
⏰ 1pm–3pm
📍 John Curtin Gallery (Building 200A)
 
The session offers a welcoming, inclusive space to explore folding as a creative and ritual practice using paper.

You’ll be guided through simple folding processes that encourage attentiveness to touch, repetition, and gesture.

Folding becomes a quiet act of care: a way to hold stories, mark time, and connect across personal and shared experiences.
 
$25 Curtin Students | $45 Curtin Staff / General Public
 
🔗 Register via link in bio!
 
No prior experience is required, and all materials are provided.
 
Arrive as you are – curious, reflective and ready to spend an afternoon making and thinking together. 💛

@perthfest @perthartlist @curtinlifeaustralia @jackychengart @universityartmuseumsaustralia @curtinbfagrads