World renowned South African artist Thania Petersen is deeply informed by the histories of the Indian Ocean and Trans-Oceanic memory, tracing the interconnectedness of cultures, migrations and shared experiences. A descendant of an Indonesian Prince forcibly taken to the continent by the Dutch East India Company, Thania seeks to retell and reclaim histories and cultural memory through textiles, multi-sensory performance and installations.

Co-commissioned by the John Curtin Gallery and the Perth Festival, Thania Petersen’s multi-channel sound work Jeiker (2026) uses recordings taken on site in Makassar, Indonesia in collaboration with Yolŋu and Makassan musicians who hold knowledge of their shared histories. With guidance from senior Yolŋu man Don Wininba Ganambarr, producer Michael Hohnen and performer and artist Abdi Karya, the work explores historical connections, linking northern Australia, Makassar and Cape Town. In a performative act of decolonisation, Thania’s work evokes a call and response across the ocean space, moving beyond trauma to focus instead on friendship and love.

Dhomala provides a deeper context to the connections between Australia and Indonesia. Historical and contemporary works from Arnhem Land and Makassar demonstrate the dynamic exchange of culture, language, song and story that have informed this relationship since a pre-colonial era. Pandanus sails or ‘dhomala’, acquired from Milingimbi in the 1940s, are displayed alongside a newly commissioned sail from artisans in Makassar, as well as contemporary works by Yolŋu artist Margaret Rarru Garrawurra that speak to the ongoing practice of sail making. A Yirrkala crayon drawing from 1947 describes a Makassan boat and its cargo and the film Djambanpuy Dhawu (The Tamarind Story), 2023, gives new life to an important part of local history using stop motion animation.

New and recent works by Thania Petersen fill the gallery spaces with scent, song and sumptuous visuals. A new iteration of her work Rampies Sny permeates the exhibition halls with what Petersen calls, ‘smells that recall a thousand places.’ Thania’s film JAWAP (2025) – an Australian premiere – traces the migration of Sufi music, exploring sound as a living archive, a force that transcends borders. Charting the Indian Ocean as a pathway of return, she reconstructs these historical routes in an attempt to reunite what colonialism severed.

Drawing from living and historical archives of song and story, the artworks that come together in A call and response across the ocean unpick legacies of colonial oppression, creating shared and celebratory spaces in their place.