Tandanya Announces Two Event Nature Festival Collaboration 'Silent Country'

Nature Festival kicks off next week, and one of the highlights of this year's program is Silent Country, a collaboration with Tandanya.

The two-night event, taking place at Tandanya's Grenfell Street home on Friday 25 and Sunday 27 September, will bring together a Tandanya-curated exhibition, a live performance by Electric Fields, a panel led by voices from culture, science and community and an intimate dinner by Indigenous-owned Warndu with acclaimed chefs Matt Stone and Shannon Fleming.

Tandanya CEO Brenz Saunders said, "As Tandanya enters a reimagined state of operations, we welcome the event Silent Country into our building, delivered in partnership with the Nature Festival team. This new style of events for Tandanya will bring together artists, musicians, thinkers and chefs into the same space to showcase their talents while uniquely expressing concerns about a conservation issue called buffel grass, which is destroying our landscapes and threatening the fire safety of towns across South Australia.

"Silent Country will enable audiences to experience a collection of artistic expressions through music, artwork and food: listening to the stories of Country, viewing the visual interpretation of culture and tasting the essence of native produce from Country. This collision of culture, ideas and experience is exactly the new style we want Tandanya to carry well into 2027 and beyond."

Tickets for both nights are on sale now at naturefestival.org.au.

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Silent Country kicks off on Friday 25 September with the exhibition space open from 4.30pm. Tandanya's group exhibition moves through visual art, sound, moving image, textiles and sculpture, with work by Anna Dowling, Brooke Rigney, Sandra Taylor, Evanna Williams, Colleen Raven, Damien Coulthard, Damien Warman and artists from Tutti Arts. The formal opening gets underway at 5:30pm, followed by a panel at 6:30pm MC'd by Taigen Ryan with Yankunytjatjara community leader and buffel grass advocate Zibeon Fielding, researcher Camille Dobson and Brenz Saunders. Electric Fields close things out with a live performance at 7:30pm.

Two nights later, Silent Country's culinary experience takes over Tandanya on Sunday 27 September. Indigenous-owned Warndu will join Matt Stone and Shannon Fleming for a one-night dinner experience built around native plants and food species under threat. Each course will celebrate the abundance held within healthy Country while confronting what is displaced when buffel grass takes over.

For Tandanya, Silent Country is an early glimpse of what is taking shape for 2027: culturally led, creatively fearless and made for big ideas to collide.

Silent Country takes place at Tandanya on Friday 25 and Sunday 27 September. Tickets are on sale at naturefestival.org.au.