Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurna-kanha, Itla Itla Nurna-kanha:
Our Family, Our Country, Our Legacy

Flinders University has a long-standing interest in the Hermannsburg School, acquiring its first watercolour in 1975 and later producing the exhibition and publication The Heritage of Namatjira: the Watercolourists of Central Australia.

This initiative, led by archaeologist and art historian JVS Megaw, provided the first comprehensive scholarship on the art, life and legacy of famed Western Aranda artist Albert Namatjira. The University’s collection now holds some 200 works by Western Aranda and associated artists, with many featuring in this exhibition.

Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurna-kanha, Itla Itla Nurna-kanha: Our Family, Our Country, Our Legacy is the outcome of a collaboration between Flinders University Museum of Art and Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre for Tarnanthi: festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. In partnership with the Art Gallery of South Australia, the collaboration supported Tarnanthi curator-in-residence Marisa Maher to develop an exhibition that responds to the State’s collections of historic watercolours and the legacy of Albert Namatjira. Drawn from practising artists of Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and the collections of Flinders University Museum of Art, Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum, the exhibition features recent and decades-old paintings in a dialogue across generations.

Curated by Marisa Maher, Nic Brown and Madeline Reece, Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurna-kanha, Itla Itla Nurna-kanha: Our Family, Our Country, Our Legacy is displayed across two sites: Flinders University Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of South Australia.