Nici Cumpston is an artist and curator based in Adelaide. Cumpston’s photographic practice centres on documenting the signposts and evidence of past and continuing Aboriginal occupation in the landscape. Her works Attesting and having-been-here are compelling series of large panoramic photographs of significant Indigenous cultural landscapes of the Murray/Darling basin. Her works have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Kluge – Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, USA, and in Australia, at The Royal Academy of Arts, London. Cumpston is the first Indigenous curator at the Art Gallery of South Australia and is the Artistic Director of the 2015 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts Festival. She is of Afghan, English, Irish and Barkindji Aboriginal Heritage, and is a descendant of the Darling River people of north western New South Wales. She also has cultural affiliations with the Murray River people and has lived for some years at Berri in the South Australian Riverland.

Nici Cumpston lecture is part of the ANU School of Art symposium Talking the walk/Walking the talk. The symposium continues at the School of Art from 9am till 5pm on Thursday the 22^nd of May.

Please join us after Nici Cumpston’s lecture for drink to celebrate the opening of the accompanying group exhibition The Walks in the School of Art Foyer Gallery.

The symposium Talking the walk/Walking the talk brings together a range of artists and curators who use walking as a means of engaging with the environment, place and landscape. It highlights the myriad ways in which human’s shape and are shaped by walking in environments.