We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Hetti Perkins Juror, Sydney Modern Project jury

Hetti Perkins, Juror

Hetti Perkins is a member of the Eastern Arrernte and Kalkadoon Aboriginal communities and has worked with Indigenous visual art for 25 years. She is creative director of Corroboree Sydney (inaugurated in November 2013) and curatorial advisor to the City of Sydney on Eora journey. Ms Perkins began working with Indigenous art at the Sydney gallery of Aboriginal Arts Australia and at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative and until recently was the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Among the major exhibitions she curated were Half light: portraits from Black Australia (2008); Crossing country: the alchemy of western Arnhem Land art (2004); and Papunya Tula: genesis and genius for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. In 1997, she co-curated (with Brenda L Croft) the exhibition fluent, to represent Australia at the 47th Venice Biennale. With Croft and Philippe Peltier, she co-curated the Australian Indigenous Art Commission for the Musée du quai Branly in Paris (2006). 

Ms Perkins has edited a number of publications, including Tradition today: Indigenous art in Australia (2004) and One sun, one moon: Aboriginal art in Australia (2007). She is a former chair of the Charlie Perkins Trust for Children and Students, which she founded; a trustee of the Michael Riley Foundation; a member of the advisory group of Jarjum College, Redfern and of the Barangaroo Arts & Cultural Panel; a former board member of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory; and a board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

This biography reflects the position of the jury member at the time of the design competition.