English Students’ Tour of the South Australian Art Gallery

Volunteer English tutor Brenda Barnett writes about a trip to the SA Art Gallery with students for the English as a Second Language courses.

“Fourteen students studying English at the Burnside Community Centre spent a glorious October Friday afternoon with their Volunteer Teachers (Barbara, Sue and I) at the South Australian Art Gallery soaking up Indigenous Art at the Tarnanthi Exhibition*.

A tour was conducted by the Art Gallery especially for our students. The tour started with selected pieces from the permanent collection in the Elder Wing of the Gallery on North Terrace followed by the main event – Tarnanthi - downstairs in the Atrium. Here we were lucky enough to meet a sculptor from the WA/SA/NT border who talked to us about her unique pieces - decorated miniature cars made out of old car oil sumps and pram wheels. This is the first year the exhibiting artists were invited to attend Tarnanthi and you couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces.

With our heads full of wonderful impressions and fascinating stories it was a welcome relief to relax over lunch on the Art Gallery lawns and de-brief in the sunshine. Just as well, as it was soon time for us to exercise our creativity in the Tarnanthi Studio.

The theme of the Studio was the work of John Prince Siddon, who uses Boab Tree Nuts in the Kimberly as his canvass. Prince would have been proud of our paper cut-out Boab Nuts adorned with our favourite animals and favourite natural spaces. Some of us even tried our hand at dot painting, mistakenly thinking “it can’t be that hard”. It was…. but it was also therapeutic for the happy fourteen, but by this time, gallery-weary students!”

*Tarnanthi (tar-nan-dee) from the language of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains means “to appear, to rise, to spring up, to emerge”. It signifies “new beginnings”. The Tarnanthi Exhibition is a festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held annually in Adelaide which showcases Indigenous Australian culture and history. Tarnanthi 2021 will be showing until 31 January 2022.