Join A/Prof Mandy Downing, Humanities Dean of Indigenous Futures in conversation with A/Prof Susanna Castleden, interim Director of the John Curtin Gallery as part of the Gallery’s Lunchtime Lecture series.
Join Mandy Downing and Susanna Castleden in conversation on the role art plays in education as a force of positivity, support and reciprocity. This conversation will respond to our current exhibition program, finding the positive and powerful means through which each exhibition examines our past, shape our present and imagine our futures together. Art is an essential part of learning about our shared histories, culture and achievements. In keeping the National Reconciliation Week theme in mind – ‘now more than ever’ – we will discuss how art and education contribute to reconciliation in supporting action, addressing injustice and supporting equity and agency.
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Associate Professor Mandy Downing is identified through maternal lineage to the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people of the Lerrumugudu (Roebourne) area. However, as the granddaughter of a Stolen Generation survivor, she was raised off-Country on Wadjuk Noongar Boodjar. Mandy is the Dean of Indigenous Futures, responsible for ensuring Australia’s Indigenous futures across the nation’s culture and economy are supported and considered in the learning, research, and partnership activities of the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. Mandy is an applied scientist in Indigenous Australian research with research interests in institutional racism and the first Aboriginal person appointed as a Dean in the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. Nationally, Mandy is the Senior Indigenous Facilitator for the National Environmental Science Program Sustainable Communities and Waste Research Hub and is the Co-Chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies National Research Ethics Committee. In the community, Mandy co-designed an emerging leadership program through the Western Australian Aboriginal Leadership Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and has voluntarily facilitated this since its inception in 2019. Associate Professor Mandy Downing is a 2023 inductee into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame for her contributions to education for more than 20 years.
Lunchtime Lectures
The Lunchtime Lecture series invite speakers from across disciplines to share their own research, practices and context in response to the exhibition programming. A mid-week opportunity to explore ideas and stir conversation in a welcoming and collegial environment. All welcome.
Image: Allan Baker, Untitled, 1974, oil on canvas (detail). Curtin University Art Collection, Gift of Su Baker, 2023.
