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Last week, Mittagong’s Sturt Craft Centre celebrated its end of year with an artisan night market in the garden and the opening of a special art exhibition.
About 100 people gathered in the gardens, where 20 market stalls displayed the wares of jewellers, ceramicists, leather and wood workers, fashion designers and sculptors.
Alongside the market, Sturt’s highly anticipated Indigenous art exhibition ‘In These Hands: Mara Nyangangka’ was opened with a welcome to country from council’s Aboriginal community development officer, Melissa Wiya.
Five women from the Ernabella Arts centre in northwest South Australia travelled to the craft centre for the opening, which showcases the artworks of about 25 Indigenous artists from Ernabella.
Curated by Sturt’s Slavica Zivkovic and Ernabella’s Alison Milyika Carroll, the exhibition features paintings, weavings, ceramics, batiks and historic items.
Senior Ernabella artist Alison Milyika Carroll told the crowd the story of the distinct ties that bind the two art centres, and Atipalku Intjalki, who visited Sturt as a 17 year-old in 1972, relayed her experience as a resident in the weaving studio with master weaver Elisabeth Nagel 45 years ago.
Next year, Ernabella Arts and Sturt Gallery will again rekindle their historic connection when three Pukatja men undertake ceramics residencies at the craft centre in Mittagong.