Initiated by AGSA in 2015, that exhibition was said to be the "most ambitious exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in 134-year history". The word tarnanthi is a Kaurna word from the traditional owners of the Adelaide Plains, the Kaurna people, meaning "to rise, come forth, spring up or appear", or "to emerge", like the sun at first light. It signifies new beginnings. As artistic director since the inaugural event, Nici Cumpston, a Barkindji artist and curator based at AGSA, collaborated with a group of elders and community members who speak the language to help translate the word used as the name. She also collaborated with many others, representing arts centres from all over Australia. Those hailing from the South Australian desert have been well-represented: the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people from the APY lands. By 2017 it had expanded to include an Indigenous art fair at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, as well as a large number of satellite exhibitions spread throughout Adelaide and beyond, featuring more than 1000 artists.
Exhibitions
2015
The 2015 exhibition included work by Warwick Thornton, film-maker from Alice Springs, as well as Dinni Kunoth Petyarre and Josie Kunoth Petyarre, residents of Utopia in Central Australia, with artworks exploring the world of "bush footy" through painted hand carvings of figures representing 16 AFL teams. The whole event was a huge success, featuring works from more than 1000 artists and attracting more than 300,000 visitors.
2017
In 2017, artists from the APY lands produced several enormous works for installation at AGSA, including two paintings on repurposed canvas mailbags, both stretched to three metres by five. 21 men collaborated on one work, 24 women on the other, with contributions spanning seven communities from the far northwest of SA: Pukatja, Amata, Mimili, Indulkana, Nyapari, Fregon and Kalka. A centrepiece of the 2017 event was a part of the ongoing Kulata Tjuta project that would have than 600 spears suspended from the ceiling of AGSA in the shape of a mushroom cloud, representing the ongoing impact of the 1950s and 60s British nuclear testing on Anangu country.
2018
The 2018 exhibition at AGSA featured the work of John Mawurndjul's bark paintings in the first major exhibition of his work in Australia.
2019
In July 2019 it was announced that the Tarnanthi Festival would run from 18 to 27 Oct 2019, with the Art Fair at Tandanya on the opening weekend and the AGSA exhibition continuing until 27 January 2020. The exhibition will feature exhibits from over 1000 artists from all over the continent and the Tiwi Islands, ranging in age from 15 to 81 years and working in a wide range of media: painting, photography, printmaking, carving, sculpture, moving image, works on paper and textiles. Opening night was on 17 October, with Yolŋu rap artist Baker Boy performing at the opening event outside the Gallery on North Terrace. An exhibition of colonial artworks alongside the tools and objects of Aboriginal people, accompanied by carefully researched text and commentary by Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones, writer and researcher Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage, is the subject of an exhibition entitled Bunha-bunhanga: Aboriginal agriculture in the south-east, mounted in the AGSA's Elder Wing, Gallery 1 and the Museum of Economic Botany. Jones created a series of outsize grindstones within the Museum building.
