In the Making: An Australia–Taiwan Indigenous Art Exchange (生成之間: 澳洲與台灣原住民族藝術交流)
Description
The School of International Studies is delighted to welcome Dr Sophie McIntyre to screen and discuss In the Making: An Australia–Taiwan Indigenous Art Exchange (生成之間: 澳洲與台灣原住民族藝術交流). The post-screening discussion will feature responses from Professor Pei-yi Lu and Professor Richie Howitt AM.
This event is open to all. We particularly welcome students interested in exchange opportunities to Taiwan under the New Colombo Plan or in Indigenous cross-cultural exchange more broadly.
This event is supported by the Taiwan Talk series by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan and the School of International Studies' Taiwan Research Fund.
Light refreshments provided. Please register before 8 June 2026.
This event will be photographed. Images may be used for educational purposes.
About the documentary
In the Making is a bilingual documentary film examining the processes and significance of cross-cultural collaboration between Indigenous artists from Australia and Taiwan participating in a five-year exchange program. It features prominent artists Judy Watson and Yuma Taru (尤瑪•達陸), alongside Robert Andrew and Akac Orat (陳豪毅), as they exchange stories, artistic methods, and cultural knowledge, culminating in new collaborative works. The film also follows Leah King-Smith during a research residency at the National Museum of Prehistory, where archival photographs inspire digital works reflecting on the intertwined histories of Australia and Taiwan.
Positioning artistic collaboration as a research method, the film explores how Indigenous knowledge, cultural protocols, and creative practices are negotiated across distinct contexts. By foregrounding dialogue and relational exchange, it reveals the possibilities and complexities of intercultural artistic production. It also highlights how sustained engagement cultivates new forms of knowledge-sharing, collaborative authorship, and stronger Indigenous connections across the Asia-Pacific.
You can watch the trailer here: https://australia-taiwanartexchange.org/documentary/
For more information on this exchange project: https://australia-taiwanartexchange.org/
About the speakers
Sophie McIntyre
Sophie McIntyre is a Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology and a curator specialising in Asia-Pacific art and museology, particularly in Taiwan, China, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. She completed her PhD at the Australian National University, where her research led to the publication of Imagining Taiwan: The Role of Art in Taiwan’s Quest for Identity (Brill, 2018). She is also the author of Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) (Scheidegger & Spiess, 2023), and has published widely in international journals, books and exhibition catalogues. She has curated more than 30 exhibitions and received numerous awards and grants for her academic and curatorial work. Sophie is the Chief Investigator and Project Lead of an award-winning First Nations exchange linking Australia, Taiwan and Aotearoa/New Zealand, bringing together artists, curators, filmmakers and scholars through symposia, publications, field trips, artist residencies, a documentary film, and a touring exhibition. She is also co-director of the feature-length documentary In the Making, an Australian-Taiwan co-production.
Pei-Yi Lu
Pei-yi Lu is the Director and Professor of MA Program on Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art, National Taipei University of Education. She was awarded PhD in humanities and Cultural Studies, University of London. Her research interests are about the studies of contemporary art curating and Off-Site Art. Her books are Contemporary Art Curating in Taiwan 1992-2012(2015) and Art/ Movement as a Public Platform- Studies on Contemporary Art and Social Movement (2024). Since 2019, she has been involving into the research of Taiwan Contemporary Indigenous Art. Now she is the curator of “2026 Asian Art Biennial-Mrahul Tminum.共織. Co-Weaving”, taking place in this November.
Richie Howitt
Emeritus Professor Richie Howitt AM was a geographer at Macquarie University from May Day 1992 until retirement in 2018. He served in many roles at Macquarie and continues to think, write and even sometimes teach. He is currently Yushan Fellow, Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, where he has been working with colleagues to support a program of yarning circles about Indigenous education for self-determination. He is also a Director of Dharug Strategic Management Group, a Dharug community-controlled NFP looking after the Blacktown Native Institution heritage site.
Event supported by:
This event is supported by the Taiwan Talk series by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan and the School of International Studies' Taiwan Research Fund.
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