Enlighten Festival | Kukawarra kwatja, pmara nhanhanama marra inthurra, soft rain, strong Country

Name: Enlighten Festival | Kukawarra kwatja, pmara nhanhanama marra inthurra, soft rain, strong Country
Start: 2026-02-27T10:00:00+11:00
End: 2026-02-27T13:00:00+11:00
Location: Parkes Place East, Canberra, ACT, Australia, Australian Capital Territory 2600

Schedule

Fri Feb 27 2026 at 10:00 am to 01:00 pm

UTC+11:00

Location

Parkes Place East, Canberra, ACT, Australia, Australian Capital Territory 2600 | Canberra, CT

The National Gallery has commissioned Kukawarra kwatja, pmara nhanhanama marra inthurra, soft rain, strong Country, a new projection and sound-based work by Yarrenyty Arltere Artists and Grace Kemarre Robinya.
For the 2026 Enlighten Festival, the Mparntwe/Alice Springs-based artists will illuminate the building’s façade with rain stories from desert Country. Presented alongside the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain, the projection offers a sense of rich and colourful Country, that has been cleansed by rain to suggest rebirth and new beginnings.
Yarrenyty Arltere Artists are renowned for their soft sculptures that deconstruct and reconstruct second-hand materials. For After the Rain the artists have created their most ambitious sculpture to date, Beautiful Ulkumanu (old woman), after the rain 2025. This ancestral woman created from old wool blankets with painted sewing machine feet will come to life on the National Gallery’s façade. After awakening from rainclouds painted by Grace Kemarre Robinya the Beautiful Ulkumanu (old woman) will create Country fresh and abundant after the rain. Inspired by their families, kinship relationships and the importance of rain to regenerate desert Country, this animation shares a positive and empowering message to continue moving onwards and upwards.