Indigenous Futures: Embodied Knowledges is a programme of talks and performance engaging with Indigenous artists, scholars and curators from Sápmi (Sápmi is the traditional territory of the Sámi people, spanning Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia) and Australia. The programme will reflect on dynamic forms of knowledge transference, connections to land and the power of art in shifting colonial consciousness. Building on the knowledge shared through exhibitions and collection displays by Indigenous artists at Tate Modern in 2025, including the Hyundai Commission: Máret Ánne Sara, Emily Kam Kngwarray and Gathering Ground.
Indigenous Futures: Embodied Knowledges supports the importance of building strong relational connections with Indigenous artists and communities, highlighting the transformative power of Indigenous contemporary art.
This event is organised by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in partnership with Hyundai Motor. Supported by the Office of Contemporary Art Norway and Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The programme is curated by Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta), Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art Hyundai Tate Research Centre Transnational, Tate Modern and Helen O’Malley, Curator of International Art: Community & Participation, Tate Modern, London. With contributions from Erin Vink (Ngiyampaa) Curator Indigenous Art Local and Global Art Gallery New South Wales and Katya García-Antón, Oslo-based art historian and curator.
10:30–10:45 Welcome and introduction: Kimberley Moulton and Helen O'Malley
Embodied Knowledges with Niillas Holmberg and Kelli Cole. Moderated by Kimberley Moulton
Knowledge in Indigenous cultures is embodied and relational. It is transferred in song, dance and ceremony through protocol and through intergenerational sharing. Hear from curator Kelli Cole (Warumungu and Luritja, Australia) and artist/poet/musician Niillas Holmberg (Sámi, Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), Sápmi) on their respective practices that work with land-based knowledges, anti-colonial practice and community collaboration.
10:45–11.15 Niillas Holmberg
11.20–11.50 Kelli Cole
11.50–12.30 Q&A moderated by Kimberley Moulton
12.30–13.30 Break
Indigenous Science: Self-Determination and the Art-Science Intersection with Rauna Kuokkanen and Robert Andrew. Moderated by Katya Garcia Anton
Self-determined praxis and the intersection of creative practice and science is an important element of Indigenous research and artistic creation. The re-thinking of western systems of learning, policy, information processing and relationality to Indigenous lands and sciences is in constant flux. Hear from Scholar Dr. Rauna Kuokkanen (Sámi, Deatnu River, Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sápmi) and artist Dr. Robert Andrew (Yaru, Australia) on their dynamic practice in theory and new technology.
13.30–13.35 Introduction
13.35–14.05 Rauna Kuokkanen
14.10–14.40 Robert Andrew
14.45–15.15 Q&A moderated by Katya Garcia-Anton
15.15–15.45 Break
The Agency of Land: Relational Practice and Shifting the Colonial Consciousness with Anders Sunna, Daniel Boyd. Moderated by Erin Vink
Art has the power to address the on-going impact of settler –colonial histories and shift the colonial consciousness to expanded understandings of Indigenous sovereignty, histories and interconnections across transnational Indigenous Spaces. Hear from artists Anders Sunna (Sámi, Kieksiäisvaara, Sápmi) and Daniel Boyd (Kudjala, Ghungalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung and Yuggera with ni-Vanuatu heritage) on their practices that critically address these themes.
15.45 Introduction
15.50–16.20 Anders Sunna
16.20–16.50 Daniel Boyd
16.50–17.20 Q&A moderated by Erin Vink
17.25 Closing remarks
17.35–17.50 Closing offering from Niillas Holmberg
Participants
Anders Sunna
Anders Sunna is a Northern Sámi artist and duojár from a reindeer herding family in Kieksikäisvaara, Sweden. His politically charged work addresses Sámi oppression, focusing on his family’s decades-long struggle for forest reindeer recognition. It explores sovereignty, land rights, intergenerational resistance, and cultural survival through bold visual commentary.
Daniel Boyd
Daniel Boyd is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. He is a Kudjala, Ghungalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung, Yuggera man with ni-Vanuatu heritage. Boyd's practice reinterprets Eurocentric histories through archival imagery and has featured in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and an Art Gallery of New South Wales retrospective (2022).
Kelli Cole
Kelli Cole is a Warumungu and Luritja curator from Central Australia, and Director of Curatorial & Engagement for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia project in Alice Springs. She was lead curator of Emily Kam Kngwarray (Tate Modern, 2025–26) and co-curator of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony (2022).
Rauna Kuokkanen
Rauna Kuokkanen is Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Politics at the University of Lapland and Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. Her work focuses on Sámi self-determination, Indigenous politics, and governance. She leads projects such as SápmiDem and the Siida School, centring Indigenous knowledge to reshape governance and challenge colonial systems.
Robert Andrew
Robert Andrew is a Yawuru artist from Broome, Western Australia. His practice uncovers denied or forgotten family histories, combining technology with earth pigments and natural materials. Through this process, he reveals layered spiritual, cultural, and historical relationships with land, waters, sky, and living beings, challenging dominant Western narratives.
Niillas Holmberg
Niillas Holmberg is a Sámi writer, musician, and activist from Ohcejohka (Ustjoki) in the Finnish part of Sápmi. Author of six poetry collections, two novels, and co-writer of Je’vida (2023), he blends joik with poetry in worldwide performances. His artistic and activist practice foregrounds Sámi sovereignty, ecological justice, cultural survival, and opposition to extractivist projects across Sápmi.
Conveners
Helen O’Malley
Helen O’Malley is Curator of International Art (Community & Participation) at Tate Modern. She develops exhibitions, displays, and commissions with a focus on socially engaged, collaborative practice, including the Hyundai Commission: Máret Anne Sara, Gathering Ground exhibition and Abbas Zahedi: Begin Again commission, and projects with Tate Neighbours.
Kimberley Moulton
Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta writer and curator from Victoria, Australia. She is Adjunct Curator Indigenous Art, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, and Senior Curator Exhibitions, RISING, Melbourne. Her work rethinks global Indigenous art histories, linking historical collections and contemporary practice, with projects including Emily Kam Kngwarray, (Tate Modern, 2025-26), TarraWarra Biennial: We Are Eagles (2025) and On Country: Photography from Australia, Rencontres d'Arles (2025).
Katya García-Antón
Katya García-Antón is an Oslo-based art historian and curator, former director of Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, and Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum Tromsø. She co-curated the 2022 Sámi Pavilion at Venice Biennale, has published widely, and is preparing programs and exhibitions for Bukhara Biennial, Park van Abbey, and TEA.
Erin Vink
Erin Vink is a Ngiyampaa curator and writer and Senior Curator, First Nations Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her practice explores contemporary Indigenous art locally and globally, developing new collection areas and curating projects including High Colour (2025) and Daniel Boyd: Treasure Island (2022–23).
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