A place of our own: A conversation between Hetti Perkins and Daniel Browning

A member of the Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, Hetti Perkins is a highly respected curator who has led the way in the exhibition of Aboriginal art for the past two decades. Until she resigned in 2011 Hetti was senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She has published extensively on Aboriginal art and worked closely with senior artists on major exhibitions at the Gallery including Half light: Portraits from Black Australia (2008); Crossing Country: The Alchemy of Western Arnhem Land Art (2004); and Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. She co-curated the Australian Indigenous Art Commission for the new Mus e du quai Branly in Paris (2006), in partnership with the Australia Council. In 1997, she co-curated (with Brenda L. Croft) the exhibition fluent to represent Australia at the 47th Venice Biennale. She worked closely with director Warwick Thornton as writer and presenter of a major 3-part television series for the ABC Art + Soul, which aired nationally in 2010 to great acclaim and produced an exhibition and book of the same name. Hetti is currently Resident Curator with Bangarra Dance Theatre.