The Unconformity Aboriginal Artist in Residence Program recipient

The Unconformity, a non-profit arts organisation, provides the opportunity for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artist or cultural practitioner based in lutruwita/Tasmania to conduct a residency in Queenstown, Western lutruwita/Tasmania, through The Unconformity Aboriginal Artist in Residence Program.

The selected applicant could be from any level of professional practice and any art form. The Unconformity Aboriginal Artist in Residence Program is designed to enable research, engagement with the West Coast landscape and local community and focus on the recipient’s practice outside their normal environment with no expectation for a resolved outcome. The residency includes self-contained accommodation, a $2,500 artist fee, and monies for materials and a per diem.

Theresa Saintly, Clear resin carrier. Courtesy the artist and The Unconformity, Tasmania

Art Almanac congratulates this year’s recipient of The Unconformity Aboriginal Artist in Residence Program: Theresa Sainty.

Sainty is a pakana woman from the north-east coast of lutruwita/Tasmania. She has worked extensively with the Tasmanian Department of Education in Aboriginal Education Services, where she co-developed and provided Aboriginal cultural awareness training and produced curriculum resources for educators to assist in addressing the cross-curriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Culture for the Australian Curriculum.

Sainty is an Aboriginal Linguistic Consultant for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and has been working in the palawa kani Language Program since 1997. Passionate about Aboriginal language, culture, and heritage, she continues to advocate for more original place names to be formally dual-named and signed. She is currently a Senior Indigenous Scholarship holder at the University of Tasmania, working on her PhD.

Recently Sainty has also worked as a cultural advisor on a number of projects with production company Roar Film and the ABC, as well as the National Maritime Museum of Australia, Sydney, and Hobart’s Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, and Mona Foma. Appointed for her knowledge and expertise in Aboriginal culture, Sainty currently sits on the Tasmanian Aboriginal Advisory Committee providing independent advice on behalf of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

Sainty was born in Queenstown and will spend up to two-and-a-half weeks in the region in 2023 for her residency.

“The residency will mean that I can spend time in the place of my birth; re-connect – well, connect really, with the place. So I can ‘see myself in this place called Queenstown’ – albeit for a very short time.”

“Hopefully get a feel for the place where my mother and father lived, and where I was born. Visit some places where family members lived, worked and played.”

Sainty will be the sixth artist to receive a residency through the Aboriginal Artist in Residence Program, joining previous recipients, playwright Nathan Maynard, musician, writer and actor Kartanya Maynard, writer Adam Thompson, visual artist Will Stackhouse, and musician Denni.

The Unconformity Aboriginal Artist in Residence program is supported through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.

theunconformity.com.au

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