Hetti Perkins

Hetti Perkins (b. 1965), Arrernte and Kalkadoon curator, cultural adviser, writer and activist, began her career at the Sydney gallery of Aboriginal Arts Australia before joining the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative as a curator. Between 1989 and 2011 Perkins worked at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with thirteen years as senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. There she curated major exhibitions including Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale of 1997, featuring the works of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie and Judy Watson. In 2010, she curated art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, which gave rise to an influential exhibition, book and television documentary. She has worked with federal agencies, community arts organisations and local government to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts, serving as curatorial adviser to Eora Journey, the City of Sydney's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public art program in 2010 and joining Bangarra Dance Theatre as an artist-in-residence in 2011. She was awarded the Australia Council Fellowship at the National Indigenous Art Awards of 2018. In 2021, Perkins curated the National Gallery of Australia's fourth National Indigenous Art Triennial. Her father is the soccer player and activist Charles Perkins AO, and her daughter is actor, model and activist Madeleine Madden.