Exhibition: Longing and Hope

Join us for an afternoon student talk at John Curtin Gallery during National Reconciliation Week 2026, presented in response to this year’s theme, All In. Facilitated by JCG curator Zali Morgan and Curtin Fine Art students Brandon Clarke (Yamatji and Koori), Mio Gadon and Ruby De Campi, this special event explores the exhibition Longing and Hope.

Longing and Hope reflects on the emotional toll of incarceration at the Carrolup Native Settlement and the enduring creativity, resilience, and connection to Country held by the children forced to live there. Through selected artworks from the Carrolup collection, the exhibition considers themes of memory, loss, hope, and survival. In many of the works, winding roads disappearing into fading pink skies speak to the children’s longing for home, family, and freedom.

History and truth can be confronting, yet acknowledgement, acceptance, and remembrance carry their own form of beauty. Responding to the 2026 National Reconciliation Week theme All In, the exhibition calls on all Australians to move beyond passive observation and share the responsibility of reconciliation together.

The panel talk will explore the students’ curatorial process, their engagement with the artworks, and how this project has shaped their understanding of truth-telling and reconciliation.

This is a free event.

Header image credit: Working with the Carrolup collection archive. Photo by Sharon Baker.

Contact the host of Longing and Hope: JCG Reconciliation Week Student Talk