An Intergenerational Love Letter for Ngarrindjeri Women — Truth, Resistance, and Cultural Survival
By Naomi Ebert Smith, Chair, Graham F Smith Peace Foundation
The 2025 Arts Peace Award recipient, Kumarangk, is now open at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) Gallery. This powerful, Ngarrindjeri-led exhibition opened on 21 February 2026 and runs until 4 April 2026, forming a vital part of the Adelaide Festival program.
Kumarangk is far more than an exhibition; it is an intergenerational love letter for Ngarrindjeri women, a profound exploration of cultural survival, and a powerful act of resistance against colonial destruction.
The Kumarangk project embodies our core values: Truth-telling, Restorative justice, Cultural sovereignty, Intergenerational strength (building bridges between elders and young people to ensure cultural continuity), and Art as activism.
At its heart, Kumarangk tells the true story of the Ngarrindjeri women who resisted the construction of the Hindmarsh Island bridge in Goolwa. For decades, their voices were deliberately misrepresented in mainstream media, their sacred stories silenced. This exhibition represents a pivotal moment of restorative justice, allowing Ngarrindjeri women to reclaim their narrative and present their truth on their own terms.
A Personal Reflection: What These Women Endured
What these women went through legally was unbelievable, and how they kept track of it all is extraordinary. It was no mere human feat.
This piece is so much more than what meets the eye. It is truly mind-boggling what the Ngarrindjeri women endured: endless enquiries, court cases, and disregard for court rulings. It is extraordinary what they faced, again and again and again.
I cannot, for one minute, fully comprehend what they went through. How they kept track of all of it… the injustice, the dismissal, the sheer weight of it. It was totally unbelievable. Shocking. It showed a total disregard and contempt for them and their beliefs. It showed white power asserting the upper hand at all times. At its core was a profound disregard for First Nations beliefs and customs. It was racism in its purest form.
I only crossed the Hindmarsh Island bridge for the first time two years ago. I could never bring myself to cross it before, knowing full well the trauma it inflicted on everyone involved. I went on it only because it is now the only way to access the island by car. It was with a heavy heart that I crossed, and I remember. We have not forgotten.
I was shocked to see how much development has taken place on the island. Those people probably don’t care or give two thoughts about what took place, about what happens every time they cross that bridge. But I still do. I carry that with me.
That story becomes another part of our history. But the important thing is: What can we learn? What can we choose not to repeat? That is what I think about when I sit with these stories. Yet we keep making the same mistakes, over and over — without learning, without making amends, without creating the space to do things differently.
It would be great if we could live long enough to learn, to make progress in our understanding, and to do things better for us all — to keep things in balance.
The Art: Healing, Witness, and Continuity
Central to the exhibition is the remounting of Aunty Sandra Saunders’ (Ngarrindjeri/Boandik) renowned Hindmarsh Island Collection, displayed for the first time in 20 years. Through a series of paintings and wire works, Aunty Sandra originally retold the story of the bridge controversy and the fierce resistance of Ngarrindjeri women and their allies.
For Aunty Sandra, creating this collection became a profound process of healing, a way to regain control of a narrative that had been distorted and weaponised against her community. The exhibition now includes a major new painting that concludes this seminal collection, alongside newly commissioned works that extend the story for a new generation.
As Aunty Sandra’s work ‘Nature’s Justice’ (2025) powerfully demonstrates, art can be both witness and advocate — documenting history while demanding accountability.
An Intergenerational Gathering of Ngarrindjeri mi:minar Artists
Kumarangk brings together an extraordinary gathering of Ngarrindjeri women artists across generations, featuring:
- Mardawi Art Collective, including the legendary Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, alongside Elizabeth Rankine, Margi Sumner, Temeika Campbell, Bessie Rigney, Zemiah Campbell, Debra Rankine, and Stephanie Russell
- New weaving pieces from Aunty Betty Sumner, Sonya Rankine, and Carly Tarkari Dodd
- Ceramics from Tiarnie Edwards
- Paintings and wirework from Sandra Saunders
This intergenerational collaboration embodies the exhibition’s core mission: transmitting cultural knowledge, strengthening community bonds, and ensuring that Ngarrindjeri women’s voices continue to resonate for generations to come.
A Multi-Disciplinary Project of Truth-Telling
The Kumarangk exhibition is one component of a major multi-disciplinary project that includes:
- A theatre performance on Country
- A documentary film
- An exhibition (now open at ACE Gallery)
- A research and community archive
This comprehensive approach ensures that the story of Ngarrindjeri women’s resistance is preserved, shared, enshrined, celebrated, and held as a place of learning across multiple platforms and audiences. Ngarrindjeri sovereignty, cultural protocols, and artistic excellence remain central to the collaborative curatorial approach led by Dominic Guerrera (Ngarrindjeri/Kaurna), Danni Zuvela (ACE Artistic Director), and Jayda Wilson (Gugada/Wirangu). To read more about the artistic team, please visit Country Arts SA’s website here.
Visit the Exhibition
- 📍 Where ACE Gallery, Adelaide
- 📅 When 21 February – 4 April 2026
- 🎟️ Entry FREE
- 🎭 Part of Adelaide Festival 2026
- 🤝 Presented with Country Arts SA
Workshop Series (bookings essential):
- Friday 28 February: Protest Banner Making with Tikari Rigney
- Friday 7 March: Weaving Jewellery with Natasha Wanganeen
- Friday 14 March: Protest Poetry with Alexis West
- Friday 21 March: Basket Weaving with Melanie Koolmatrie
- Friday 28 March: Textile Dyeing with Bonny Brodie and Christina Flanagan
Full program and bookings → https://ace.gallery/whats-on/exhibitions/kumarangk
Image Credit: Sandra Saunders, Ngarrindjeri/Boandik people, South Australia, born Millicent, South Australia 1947. ‘Nature’s Justice’, 2025, Port Lincoln, South Australia. Oil on hardboard, 130cm x 75cm. Photography by Connor Patterson. © Sandra Saunders 2025. All rights reserved.
The Peace Foundation extends our deepest gratitude to:
- The Ngarrindjeri women artists who have shared their truth, their art, and their strength
- Aunty Sandra Saunders for her courage in creating the Hindmarsh Island Collection
- Dominic Guerrera (Ngarrindjeri/Kaurna), First Nations Creative Producer
- Louise Nunn, ACE Executive Director
- Danni Zuvela, ACE Gallery Artistic Director
- Jayda Wilson, Associate Curator
- Country Arts SA for their partnership in presenting this vital work
- All our Peace Foundation supporters who make it possible for us to champion projects that advance justice, peace, and artistic expression
Follow (Instagram): @ace.gallery.adelaide @countryartssa @adelaidefestival
Learn More:
The Graham F Smith Peace Foundation — supporting art that builds peace, truth, and community.