Past events / Exhibitions, News, Projects

‘Story Necklace’ Exhibition – South Australian Museum

Ended 3 years ago — at South Australian Museum

Ikuntji Artists are excited to invite you to ‘Story Necklace’ exhibition, to be held at the South Australian Museum. The exhibition will showcase the deep cultural tradition of jewellery, featuring our collaborative ‘story necklace’ and other beautiful works by Ikuntji Artists. You will also be able to purchase jewellery from the SAM Store.

About the exhibition

Jewellery is an underappreciated art form in today’s contemporary Aboriginal art market and yet it is based on the wisdom of generations of Aboriginal women. The Story Necklace created by women and men from Ikuntji artists celebrates this continuum of knowledge and practice.

Made from ininti seeds, quandong seeds and gumnuts collected from around Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, this necklace tells the story of its creation – from visiting country to harvest the seeds to coming together to prepare and thread seeds. The creation of this piece shows a renewal and continuation of Aboriginal women’s central place in Aboriginal society and, with its acquisition, the Museum.

Supported by Sparkke at the Whitmore

Supporting Art Centre Ikuntji Artists

Presented by South Australian Museum

“My mother, grandmother and auntie were the ones who taught me…we have learnt from our grandmothers, now we are still making jewellery.” – Kelly Dixon

Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery

Open daily 10am – 5pm

FREE entry

Images courtesy of South Australian Museum.

Read About the Exhibition in The Advertiser

The making of ‘Story Necklace’

in 2016, 21 artists came together over period of many weeks to create the “Story Necklace”. Trips to country in collaboration with Central Land Council and Macdonnell Regional Council Youth Program made this happen.

Whilst women collected the seeds and created the necklace, male artists recorded it.

The ‘Story Necklace’ represents all the different stories told when visiting country, each seed is a story and encapsulates that moment. It also represents all the time spent together when making the necklaces, sitting around the fire, pokering the holes with the hot wire, threading one seed and one story next to the other.

‘Story Necklace’ is 50m long in circumference and consists of a variety of seeds: gum nuts, ininti, and quandong. It is suspended on multi-strand stainless steel wire.