Outdoor Healing Sculptures

12 June

Written By Ku Arts

Keeping Culture Strong is a bespoke cultural arts program designed to support First Nations participants in correctional settings across South Australia. This instalment of Keeping Culture Strong took place at Cadell Training Centre with Yarrawarrka, Pitjantjatjara and Adnyamathanha Master Carver Patrick Ikaringanyi Ferguson in the form of Outdoor Healing Sculptures.

The Outdoor Healing Sculptures were shaped directly by feedback from participants involved in previous carving workshops at Cadell Training Centre, alongside discussions with Cadell staff and arts facilitator Patrick Ferguson. Participants expressed a strong desire to create large shields that connected them to Country, and would contribute meaningfully to the Healing Circle environment.

Honouring Country, participants designed two shields to be installed at the entrance of the Healing Circle. The shields proudly display the twists and the turns of Murrundi (the Murray River) and the Seven Aboriginal Nations of the wider River Murray, Mallee, and Riverland area.

Delivered across two four-day intensives in April and May 2026, participants worked with Patrick to carve large-scale shield sculptures. Patrick pre-prepared timber forms for participants to develop, with shields varying in size from 150 - 180cm in height and 50 - 90cm in width. The project culminated in a celebration and ceremony in June.

The program also established a foundation for future collaborative shield-making, with the intention that, if funding and resources allow, additional works may be created over time to expand the installation in a collective and evolving way.

Image: Shield in progress, May 2026.
Photo: Patrick Ferguson.

Ku Arts, Keeping Culture Strong is a 12-month initiative that connects respected First Nations artists with participants through structured, culturally grounded and trauma-informed workshops that centre storytelling, connection to Country and creative expression.

The Keeping Culture Strong program creates spaces within correctional facilities where culture is practiced, shared and strengthened. Participants are supported to explore their personal narratives, cultural knowledge and lived experience through visual arts, transforming ideas into murals, shields and studio-based artworks that reflect pride, strength and belonging.

Through meaningful engagement with professional Aboriginal artists, participants will gain insight into creative industries, professional arts practice and cultural leadership. The program encourages participants to see art not only as healing and expression, but as a viable pathway for ongoing learning, cultural authority and potential future employment or independent creative practice.