A powerful exhibition exploring regenerative practice and transcultural connections, now underway at TarraWarra Museum of Art.
Iluwanti Ken, Walawuru Tjukurpa–The Story of the Eagles, 2024. Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2025: We Are Eagles. Courtesy of the artist and Tjala Arts, Amata. Photo: Brook James
The highly anticipated TarraWarra Biennial 2025: ‘We Are Eagles’ opened at the TarraWarra Museum of Art on Saturday 29 March. Curated by Yorta Yorta woman, writer, and curator Kimberley Moulton, the opening weekend featured a special ‘In Conversation’ event with Moulton and participating artists Gunybi Ganambar, Iluwanti Ken, Daniel Riley, Shireen Taweel, Angela Tiatia, Lisa Waup, Warraba Weatherall, and Yaritji Young. Visitors had the opportunity to hear about the creative processes and inspirations behind their work.
From 29 March to 20 July, TarraWarra Biennial 2025: ‘We Are Eagles’ features 23 artists who centre regenerative practice and relational transcultural connections to land, objects, and memory, including over 20 newly commissioned works.
Established in 2006, the TarraWarra Biennial identifies new trends in contemporary Australian art through an experimental curatorial platform. The ninth edition, ‘We Are Eagles,’ takes its title from a speech given at the 1938 Day of Mourning—a seminal south-eastern First Nations political movement. On 26 January 1938, activist Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls KCVO OBE called for equal rights and an end to colonial oppression, declaring, “We do not want chicken-feed… we are not chickens; we are eagles.”
Anchored in this sentiment and moment in the nation’s history, ‘We Are Eagles’ shares cross-cultural knowledge and stories through a network of regenerative practices that disrupt colonial temporalities. The exhibition connects across cultures, beyond borders, and through waterways, sky country, and stars, linking to the totemic eagle and more-than-human connections. It highlights multiple ways to engage with history, Ancestral knowledge, and expansive futures.
Teho Ropeyarn, Them Old People, 2025, and Nadia Hernández, En Todo Tiempo (At All Times), 2024–25. Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2025: ‘We Are Eagles’. Photo: Brook James
Director of TarraWarra Museum of Art, Dr Victoria Lynn, said: “We were delighted to have Kimberley Moulton curate the ninth edition of the TarraWarra Biennial, one of the most anticipated exhibitions in the Australian cultural calendar. Under Moulton’s visionary curation, moving beyond traditional museum display techniques, ‘We Are Eagles’ highlights artists who reclaim cultural space in innovative ways.”
Curator Kimberley Moulton stated: “‘We Are Eagles’ considers the relationality between cultural material, memory, and place and how embodied knowledge disrupts coloniality and prescribed notions of identity within the Australian imaginary. Through this exhibition, I applied a First Peoples curatorial approach to a wide range of contemporary Australian artists, sharing ways in which creative practice can re-story our connections to object and memory.”
A foundational piece in the exhibition is a new sound work by Wurundjeri woman and artist Brooke Wandin, responding to a wangimu bubupal (a child’s boomerang) on loan from Museums Victoria. Recorded in language, the work seeks to restore the wangimu bubupal’s spirit and history.
Nathan Beard, 1952, 1215.1, 2025; 1952, 1215.4, 2025; 1963, 1016.12, 2025. Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2025: We Are Eagles. Courtesy of the artist and FUTURES. Photo: Brook James
Large-scale installations transforming the gallery space include:
- Shireen Taweel’s ‘Pilgrimage of a Hajjanaut,’ explores celestial navigation technologies and Islamic feminist narratives through a speculative fiction lens in relation to migration and pilgrimage.
- Venezuelan-born artist Nadia Hernández’s mixed media work is inspired by Venezuelan protest songs from the past century.
- A project of regeneration featuring handmade cultural belongings and a soundscape created by Yorta Yorta/Wurundjeri artist Moorina Bonini with her family on Country.
- Angela Tiatia’s new three-channel video work, ‘Render,’ documents the embodiment of an ancestral chant of Pacific cosmology, interwoven with images of Sāmoan landscapes and temples that reflect environmental concerns and climate change in her homelands.
‘We Are Eagles’ also features ambitious new works, including:
- Pitjantjatjara artist Iluwanti Ken’s eagle story from her community, alongside a collaborative work with her niece Yaritji Young.
- Paintings and ceramics by artists from Kaiela Arts in Shepparton, Victoria, a thriving Aboriginal arts centre in Yorta Yorta Country.
- A large-scale Kamilaroi artist, Warraba Weatherall’s installation focuses on repatriating intangible cultural property and knowledge systems, exploring their contemporary roles in communities.
- Nathan Beard’s abstracted sculptural works critique Western museological practices and speak to Thai Ancestral belongings.
- A new film by wani toaishara explores citizenship, identity, and belonging themes.
The exhibition is accompanied by a dynamic public program that activates both the main gallery and the recently opened Eva and Marc Besen Centre. Highlights included:
- ‘In Conversation: We Are Eagles #1’ on Saturday, 29 March, featuring curator Kimberley Moulton and artists Gunybi Ganambar, Iluwanti Ken, Daniel Riley, Shireen Taweel, Angela Tiatia, Lisa Waup, Warraba Weatherall, and Yaritji Young.
- ‘In Conversation: We Are Eagles #2’ on Saturday, 12 April, where Moulton led floor talks with artists Nathan Beard, wani toaishara, Maree Clarke, and Lisa Hilli.
- A special event in partnership with RISING on Saturday, 14 June, featuring a day-long celebration of music, food, and artist talks.
TarraWarra Biennial is on view until 20 July 2025. For more information, please visit the TarraWarra Museum.
