To complement the academic program a cultural festival will showcase a variety of artistic, cultural and heritage practices, as practitioners and artists offer limited place interactive workshops, static displays and dynamic exhibitions to share their knowledge, skills and culture. Activities will be both scheduled and ad hoc. Some activities will be ongoing throughout the conference (e.g. Aboriginal artists creating paintings), subject to daily availability, other events will be scheduled. Limited place workshops and exclusive special events must be booked in advance (see below).
Special events will take place in the evenings, to coincide with the conference opening, and on Wednesday and Saturday during the day, and include the Conference Dinner and various behind the scenes and special tours.
Download the Program & Event Guide below to see when any of these special events are scheduled
Events include:
The WAC-10 Opening Ceremony, at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Join us for the opening of WAC-10, tour the Colin Jack-Hinton Maritime Gallery, listen to a special curatorial talk, and have exclusive access to the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), Australia’s longest running Indigenous art award of its kind. Please note: All MAGNT events will require proof of registration.
The WAC-10 Opening Ceremony is sponsored by MAGNT & Wessex Archaeology
A free screening of the Australian film Ten Canoes at the Deckchair Cinema, Wednesday 25 June, 8pm, preceded by a free Aussie BBQ on the foreshore near the Deckchair Cinema. The film’s director, Rolf de Heer, will speak before the film and be available for a Q&A afterwards.
Dinner at the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, Thursday 26 June, 7–9pm, following the Peter Ucko lecture. The Mindil Beach Markets are a Darwin multicultural icon, hosting over 200 speciality stores, entertainment and food vendors. Dinner at the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets is sponsored by Archstone.
Free screening of the 1980 documentary, “Dirt Cheap” (director’s cut), produced by Marg Clancy, David Hay and Ned Lander in Danala Community Learning 1.01 (adjacent to the registration desks) on Sunday 22 June at 12 noon and 2 pm. This film details the early resistance against uranium mining in Kakadu National Park, and foreshadows the Mid Congress Tours to the Park planned for 25 June.
Painting and weaving demonstrations and ‘pop up’ Indigenous art store on daily 22-29 June (excluding 25 June), coordinated by Marrawuddi.
The WAC-10 Gala dinner on the Esplanade opposite the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel. Come and join us for a 3 course meal under the stars, with entertainment and more. The WAC-10 Gala Dinner is sponsored by Jangga Operations and the Double Tree by Hilton.
Thank you to all our Event Sponsors
Limited Place Workshops
These interactive and hands-on workshops are limited in places and must be booked in advance; please click on an image to book (available soon). Please note that many will take place more than once throughout the week, so you will have more than one opportunity to participate.
with Jasmine Te Hokinga Mai and Delise Tui Kerehona
with Jasmine Te Hokinga Mai and Delise Tui Kerehona
with Sivaranjani Raja and Rajakumari Raja
with Sasidharan Sivasundaram
with Wayne Runyu, Jeffrey McDonald, Richard Miller and Lisa Mununggurr
with Carol Pamkal, Dorothy and Linda Kotjan
with Banartjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup
with Larrakia man William Hewitt and Nyungar man Ken Hayward
Exclusive Special Events
The events below are exclusive offers to WAC-10 participants from some of our partner organisations. They have limited places, so please click on the event of your choice to book.
Please note: Attendance at all Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory events will require proof of registration
MAGNT Collections in the context of Punata/Fort Dundas
Creative Works & Exhibitions
Time & Venue: Sunday 22–Saturday 28, Danala Studios (Ground floor)
Creative works and exhibitions are open to everyone every day throughout the Congress.
Timeless Threads: Exploring The Legacy of Sustainable Indian Textiles
Moumita Dhar, Research Officer, Assistant Curator, National Museum, New Delhi, India
Sculptures, temple reliefs, and numismatic artefacts provide ample insights into the textiles and adornments of ancient India. Evidence of early textiles can be traced to the Indus Valley Civilisation (3500–1900 BCE) through depictions on sculptures and material remains. Manuscripts and inscriptions further enrich our understanding, while medieval paintings, including Rajasthani and Mughal miniatures, vividly illustrate diverse textile traditions.
Timeless Threads explores various sustainable textile practices of ancient India, delving into their origins, history, and enduring legacy. It will highlight fashion and aesthetics, showcasing how traditional styles and patterns can inspire contemporary designs and modern styling, and visitors will have the opportunity to touch and feel different textile pieces, allowing them to connect physically with these ancient practices. Timeless Threads aims to raise awareness about these age-old, eco-friendly textile traditions, encourage the adoption of natural materials over synthetic ones, and spark creativity in reimagining ancient aesthetics for today’s fashion.
An Excavated Life
Christine Finn, archaeologist, journalist, artist
I have spent nearly half of my life excavating the archaeologist and writer, Jacquetta Hawkes. This time, I present a concise retrospective of my own life, that of a 65 year old writer, journalist, archaeologist, and artist. The mixed-media exhibition is a visual and auditory memoir, showing the evolution of my projects, as happenstance artworks, and formal exhibitions. From leavehomestay.com, to inspirations as diverse as retro technology, Seamus Heaney, WW2 Occupation, old school newsrooms, 19th c Arctic auroras, the Festival of Britain, family histories, Mount Carmel, and the Scottish-Australian painter, Ian Fairweather. Presented as a context it aims to encourage WAC participants to find common themes around digging, rescue, vulnerability, demise, fragments, risk, and revelation, within the course of an excavated life.
About the Artist: I have been funded by, amongst others, Arts Council England (seven times), British Council, Henry Moore Foundation, the Royal Literary Fund, and Jersey Arts Trust. I am a Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries of London, and a member of the National Union of Journalists, and the Society of Authors. I contribute to the Times and Sunday Times, and BBC national radio. I have had formal associations with the Oxford University, Bradford University, and Flinders University.
Communicating What Has Been Lost
Sahoko Aki, Artist, International Research Association for Art and Archaeology
Yasuyuki Yoshida, Morioka University, International Research Association for Art and Archaeology
Katsuyuki Okamura, Osaka City Museums, International Research Association for Art and Archaeology
An exhibition from the International Research Association for Art and Archaeology, and the Power of the Invisible Project (2018-2024): Explorations to Stimulate Interest in Cultural Heritage.
Behind the works exhibited here lie two contrasting types of loss:
- Overwhelming loss caused by a major disaster that occurs within just a few days in a very specific region. The present works relate in part to the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 11, 2011).
- Gradual loss that happens slowly everywhere at an almost imperceptible pace, alongside the advancement of civilisation and technology and throughout human history.
Archaeologists study artefacts and remains that survive after both kinds of loss, discovering human activities that transcend the physical materials in which evidence is embedded. The artists who participated in this project alongside archaeologists could experience in different ways the same materials and archaeological sites, moving back and forth between people’s memories of the past and the present. Their artistic responses resonate with contemporary audiences by revealing phenomena that are ambiguous, transient, and difficult to put into words.
Through its various explorations involving artists and archaeologists, the Power of the Invisible project created space and time for many people to pause in their present-day life, look back, and experience the past in their own ways.
Artworks on Display:
(A) Connecting: Minamisoma, the landscape at your fingertips.
Fumio Obara, 2024. Wood sculpture, Japanese catalpa wood.
Born blind, Obara knows the world in a different way to the rest of us. Here he has carved the Minami-soma landscape of Fukushima Prefecture, northern Japan, out of wood, collecting tactile memories of his whole-body senses. The parts can be seen as disparate or assembled into four-dimensional landscape, with the time dimension continuing into the future as well. The pillar that holds together the memory of the fragmented landscape is a single borehole core, named the ‘rod of time’, based on an actual core that Obara has palpated with local archaeologists.
(B) Knowing the Land: Tsunan Jomon Map
Sahoko Aki, 2025. Acrylic painting, print on cloth
As an illustrator and artist, Sahoko Aki has often collaborated with archaeologists to reconstruct images of ancient human life in Japan. Along the Tsunan river terraces in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, the prehistoric Jomon inhabitants made flamboyantly decorated pottery, while hunting and gathering for thousands of years. Here the artist imagines a worldview of space and time based on local traditions and the memories of lived experience. This overlaps with the body-centered cosmology suggested by Fumio Obara. He and the Jomon people carry within their bodies maps invisible to most of us, accustomed as we are to using maps with excessive visual information and without accompanying experience.
Art at a Crossroads: Uncover the Untold Stories of an Aboriginal Collection
Kelly Cusack, Sally K. May, Andrea Jalandoni, Gabriel Maralngurra
From 1912 to 1922, W. Baldwin Spencer and Paddy Cahill collected over 160 bark paintings from the Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) community. While these artworks shaped global perceptions of Aboriginal culture, the artists remained nameless, their individual creativity overlooked. Until now. Join us in recognising, celebrating, and acknowledging some of these artists and their rich stories through Art at a Crossroads.
A VR component accompanies this work.
Waters of Wisdom: Traditional Ingenuity in Water Resource Management
Carmen Baulch, Austral Archaeology, Australia
This diorama showcases the diversity and ingenuity of traditional water management practices from various cultural and ecological environments. The diorama will consist of four distinct scenarios, each positioned in a separate corner, highlighting the sustainable use of water resources. The chosen scenarios include the Brewarrina Fish Traps of Australia, illustrating the integration of fishing and ecosystem management; Hawaiian and Polynesian Fishponds, emphasising controlled fish harvesting; Wetland Management practices of the Amazon Basin, showcasing sustainable agriculture in aquatic settings; and the Falaj Irrigation System of Oman, demonstrating the strategic use of underground water for irrigation in arid landscapes. The diorama will effectively communicate the connection between archaeological water management and community life while celebrating the ingenuity and resilience of traditional knowledge systems.
This work accompanies T06/S01: Sacred Streams, Changing Currents: Perspectives from the Past for a Sustainable Future.