Join Kelli Cole and Hetti Perkins, Australian First Nations Curators, for this year's Menzies Annual Lecture hosted at Tate Modern.

Kelli Cole and Hetti Perkins have curated significant solo exhibitions of Emily Kam Kngwarray, Anmatyerr people (c.1914–1996).

Kngwarray was a pivotal figure in the artistic revolution that redefined contemporary Aboriginal art with her unique style and powerful creative vision, earning her worldwide attention. This talk explores the life of one of the most significant painters to emerge in the late 20th century.

This event is in partnership with Tate Gallery on behalf of Tate Enterprises Ltd.

About the speakers

Hetti Perkins

Curator, writer and presenter Hetti Perkins is a member of the Arrernte and Kalkadoon Aboriginal communities. Hetti is the curator of ‘Desert Mob’ presented annually by Desart, the peak advocacy body for Central Australian art centres. Hetti has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual art for over thirty years and was Senior Curator (at large), National Gallery of Australia where she curated Ceremony: the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial (March – July 2022). Hetti also co-curated (with Kelli Cole) a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Emily Kam Kngwarray for the National Gallery in 2023-24. In 2018 she was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship. In 2019, Hetti was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of New South Wales.

Kelli Cole

Kelli Cole, a Warumungu and Luritja woman from Central Australia, is the Director of Curatorial & Engagement for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia project in Alice Springs. She is the lead curator for the Tate Modern exhibition Emily Kam Kngwarray (July 2025 – January 2026), building upon the 2023 National Gallery of Australia exhibition she co-curated with Hetti Perkins. Previously, she held the position of Curator of Special Projects in the First Nations portfolio at the National Gallery of Australia. Cole has contributed to numerous publications, both nationally and internationally, on various aspects of First Nations art and also worked closely with Hetti Perkins as part of the curatorial team for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony (2022).