CIAF '25 TALKS PROGRAM: Mark Makers
Friday 11 - Sunday 13 July 2025 | Ticketed & Free Events
Join us at our CIAF Talks Program 2025 as we explore all that needs paying attention to in the arts. This year’s Talks feature a stellar line-up of keynote, or Mark Makers, speakers.
These presentations will be specially ticketed events for art fair patrons. There will also be numerous daily and free panel talks. These will go in-depth into all things artmaking, collecting, promoting, policies and politics, conservation, and artistic authenticity in an era of Truth-Telling.
Our esteemed Mark Makers speakers and eclectically experienced panelists are made up of artists, arts workers, curators and arts writers, authors, and visionaries in arts showcasing internationally. Representing First Nations arts will be experts of all fields, background and ages—alongside the occasional ally in the arts—bringing to the fore a reignited look into groundbreaking cultural and contemporary arts practice and theory.
Meet the CIAF '25 Mark Makers
Dr Archie Moore
Friday 11 July, 10AM, Tanks Art Centre | Ticketed
Kinship and Cultural Maintenance / On the enduring strength of Kin, at the heart of First Nations arts and cultures
A Kamilaroi/Bigambul man, Moore has taken the international art world by storm with his seminal work, kith and kin (2024), winning La Biennale di Venezia’s prestigious Golden Lion Award. Moore’s practice challenges contemporary perspectives on First Nations’ histories, telling the stories of our peoples, and what we’ve lost and what sustains us today in renewal and remembrance.
Dr Terri Janke
Saturday 12 July, 10AM, Tanks Art Centre | Ticketed
Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property: Old ways protected under new legislation and in new industries
Terri Janke is a Wuthathi, Yadhaykana and Meriam woman and an international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). She is known for innovating pathways for collaborations using Indigenous knowledge and cultural expression. As the owner and Solicitor Director of Terri Janke and Company, she manages her team to deliver excellent results to a diverse client base. Terri advises on legal matters including intellectual property, business law, shareholder agreements and governance of Indigenous organisations. She has written leading ICIP Protocols and models for various sectors including the arts, museums, archives, film, and business. Terri is also a valued mentor, accredited mediator, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Sebastian Goldspink
Sunday 13 July, 10AM, Tanks Art Centre | Ticketed
Creative Collaboration - The relationship between Artists and Curators
This presentation examines the creative relationship between artists and curators and uses the ongoing curatorial dialogue between Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie and Burramattagal curator Sebastian Goldspink as a case study for this potentiality.
This partnership is traced through early collaborations at the artist run space ALASKA Projects and into large scale presentations including the Adelaide Biennial.
Considerations include, what is a curator? How can First Nations artists access Artist Run Spaces? What is the benefit of having curators and writers write about your work? How does curatorial inclusion impact markets? What are the benefits of artist talks and in conversations with curators. How can curators amplify and promote your work to larger audiences and institutions. Rennie’s series of road films is used as a starting point for this broad discussion that seeks to demystify these creative collaborations.
CIAF '25 Talks Curator
Jack Wilkie-Jans
With over a decade of experience as an awarded multi-disciplinary artist, writer and arts worker, Jack Wilkie-Jans brings a wealth of arts, events and project management knowledge to his private consultancy practice: JWJ Consultancy (launched in 2023). Boasting a varied and stellar work history in political advisory services, economic development (including tourism) advocacy and land management across Cape York Peninsula—as well as research, critique, policy development, and copywriting—Jack Wilkie-Jans specialises in all facets of the contemporary Indigenous art sector and Aboriginal affairs. Jack is a qualified Politologist, with a Bachelor of Arts from James Cook University, majoring in Political Science & Internal Affairs; he is also an Alumni of the National Gallery of Australia's Dhiraamalang: Wesfarmers First Nations Arts Leadership Program and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society. Jack is a Waanyi, Teppathiggi and Tjungundji man from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Mapoon of Cape York Peninsula, with English, Vanuatuan and Danish heritage.
Panel Discussions
PANNELLISTS/SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED SOON!
Tank 5 | FREE EVENTS | Program subject to change
Friday 11 July, 12:45PM - 01:30PM
The art of today, for tomorrow: A discussion on how to preserve authentic practices and traditional languages, and the role of language in arts writing.
This session explores the way First Nations arts (and therefore, cultures) are presented, recorded and held for history. A combination of curators, writers and language maintenance experts analyse how First Nations art is critiqued or interpreted by markets.
Saturday 12 July, 11:30AM-12:15PM
A conversation on the principles and practices of institutional acquisitions and collections. In conversation, leading curatorial experts will discuss the relationality institutions (e.g. museums) have to artworks, artists and the communities works originate from.
This session will give audiences insights into the making and conservation of some of the most celebrated innovations in First Nations art forms from Tropical North Queensland. As well as discussing the integral role country (and connection to it) plays in assembling organic materials for works which speak to country.
Saturday 12 July, 12:30PM-01:15PM
International arts communities: Exploring the spirit of cultural exchange and value of cross-cultural collaboration.
With many international touring and cultural exchange opportunities for First Nations artists today, this session will delve into the nature of working in arts practices, within cultural settings internationally. As well as mapping-out logistical considerations in producing international projects, and artists being ‘showcase ready’.
Saturday 12 July, 01:30PM-02:15PM
Art as expression and social & emotional wellbeing.
Leaders in the arts and community discuss the tools we need to overcome challenges today, and what we’ve learned from yesterday. They’ll also discuss the vital role the creative industries, and Culture, has to social and emotional wellbeing and mental health outcomes
Sunday 13 July, 11:30AM-12:15PM
New heights and the future of contemporary Indigenous art: A discussion on how artists, curators and collectors respond to market trends.
This session brings together artists and collectors in a concentrated discussion about what inspires them when they undertake their work. Do trends impact the shifts and movements of their practices? What does commercial success mean to them as creative and/or cultural practitioners? And, does commercial success matter to being attractive to collectors?
Sunday 13 July, 12:30PM-01:15PM
Pitstops and the road ahead: A timely discussion addressing issues facing arts development and art centres.
This session will delve into what opportunities or challenges are faced in accessing funding and training, gaining representation and having access to markets for art centres. Audiences will also hear what the fashion, wearable art and design sector experience, as an emerging and highly celebrated First Nations art form.