Spirit Men | Tarnanthi 2019 — Aboriginal Art at the Royal Adelaide Hospital

*Spirit Men | Tarnanthi 2019 — Aboriginal Art at the Royal Adelaide Hospital* Filmed on *24 October 2019* at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia, Spirit Men is a short film exploring an exhibition presented as part of **Tarnanthi 2019 — the Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art**. The Spirit Men exhibition brought together paintings exploring the idea of **spirit — through connections to self, Country, culture and community**. The featured artists, Tasman Kleingeld Tjapaltjarri, Allen Sparrow, Stephen Martin Pitjara and David Moolooloo, worked through the Circle of Arts Foundation, a community organisation supporting creativity as a pathway towards healing. ([Art Gallery SA][1]) Through making this film, I had the privilege of meeting some wonderful people within Adelaide's Aboriginal community and listening to the perspectives of Aboriginal men and women who generously shared something of their stories, culture and relationship with art. The paintings displayed throughout the hospital corridors offered far more than something beautiful to look at. They opened a window into identity, Country, community, healing and the stories carried within contemporary Aboriginal art. Tarnanthi itself takes its name from the language of the **Kaurna people, the Traditional Owners of the Adelaide Plains**. The word means *to come forth or appear*, evoking the emergence of the sun and first light. The wider Tarnanthi program provides a platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia to share their stories and artistic practices. ([Art Gallery SA][2]) This little film preserves one moment from that much larger celebration — and some of the people, paintings and conversations I was fortunate enough to encounter along the way. *Spirit Men — Tarnanthi 2019* Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia Filmed 24 October 2019 *Filmed and produced by Jaya Khoobsurat* © 2019–2026 Tyrian Pearl Productions. All rights reserved. [1]: https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/t... "Tarnanthi - Spirit Men - AGSA" [2]: https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/t... "Tarnanthi 2019 - AGSA"