Aboriginal galleries: Looking south

By ERWIN CHLANDA with InDaily

“It isn’t going to happen, but the Premier doesn’t have the courage, or perhaps the folly, to officially knock it out of the park.”

What is it? “A world-class Aboriginal arts and cultural centre known as Tarrkarri” in Adelaide’s North Terrace, housing “tens of thousands of Indigenous art treasures and artefacts currently locked away in storage” and estimated to cost $400m to $600m.

The comment was published in February in the SA capital’s online newspaper, InDaily, which last week had some good news from the Indigenous art front: While the state government “is yet to make meaningful progress” on Tarrkarri (architect's impression above), Tandanya is approaching opening.

And here lies the difference between the Adelaide and Alice Springs projects: In the Alice the government has knocked the national Aboriginal art gallery on the head after 10 years of a bi-partisan planning fiasco and spending an estimated $10m with nothing to show. And there is nothing else.

So what is Tandanya down-south? How much is it costing?

Not hundreds of millions. Not tens. Not even one. The figure is $780,000 for giving a historic building “a fresh lick of paint on the interior walls of its heritage-listed building that was once the city’s Grenfell Street Power Station … replacing air-conditioning units and sprinkler heads, work on internal walls to address deterioration, electrical work, painting multiple rooms and replacing carpets,” as InDaily reports.

The National Aboriginal Cultural Institute at the corner of East Terrace and Grenfell Street will store 3000 Indigenous art pieces.

The imposing red-brick building opened as an Aboriginal-owned multi-arts centre in 1989 but has been closed for two years. In that respect it is similar to the many empty buildings around Alice – think the old police station and the Jock Nelson building.

The maintenance and structural challenges took about two years to address, one year involving a heritage assessment and another the actual refurbishment work.

The new CEO Brenz Saunders (pictured), born in Ceduna but educated in Adelaide, sees Tandanya as more than a gallery, generating revenue by partnering with other Indigenous organisations and hospitality operators.

In collaboration with Adelaide Fringe hub Gluttony, Tandanya will host performances from February for the arts festival in a program with 55% Indigenous representation.

The theatre space remained fully operational despite having been untouched for the better part of three years, and a workshop space out the back of the institute will be cleared.

Saunders hopes to bring back Spirit Festival – a defunct festival of Indigenous culture – and more broadly have a calendar of events for the Aboriginal community “that celebrate the culture of the state”.

ED: Photos and some text from InDaily, Adelaide's online newspaper.

We published an earlier story about Tandanya in 2022.