Teen Art Workshop: For our Elders

Celebrate NAIDOC Week by getting creative with artists Jayda Wilson and Tikari Rigney, to acknowledge our Elders' sovereignty and survival.

This two-part workshop explores how our Elders have influenced our identities and place in the world. We will acknowledge, pay respects, give and show appreciation for what they have done for family and community.

Hand write poetic love letters to the Elders in your life with artist Jayda Wilson, before transposing these words onto clay sculptures with artist Tikari Rigney.

This exclusive workshop is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and allies aged 12 to 17. We consider allies to be a close non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander friend who supports us and we can’t live without. Up to one ally can be included in a booking along with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander young person.

Registrations are limited to 20 places.

Please note: We encourage educators/parents/caregivers arrange for participants to be dropped off and and picked up.

About the artists
Jayda Wilson is an emerging contemporary artist of Gugada, Wirangu, and Thai descent living and working on unceded Kaurna Yarta. Wilson's current work focuses on the connection between language and identity as they ground themselves culturally and affirm sovereignty through Gugada and Wirangu wangga, located on the Far West Coast of South Australia. Wilsons multidisciplinary practice is a documentation of a journey to reclaiming language through celebrating nuances of First Nations languages, expressing individuality within Aboriginality. Wilson’s work creates a visual and oral archive of Gugada and Wirangu wangga, being a representation of the way they embody language and the navigation of learning their mother tongue through an imposed colonial system.

Tikari Rigney is a non-binary (they/them) Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjeri visual artist and poet working in a range of mediums including performance, illustration, sculpture and writing. Their practice references their queer bodily experience, Aboriginality and the complexities of human connection, and explores themes of humor, rebirth and emotional vulnerability.

Feature image: 'Teen Protest Art Workshop: Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!' (2022), Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Thomas McCammon.