Tandanya welcomes audiences to experience a collection of artistic expressions spanning music, artwork and food through Silent Country, a two-event Nature Festival collaboration at its Grenfell Street home on Friday 25 September and Sunday 27 September 2026.

Across two nights, Silent Country brings together a Tandanya-curated exhibition, a live set 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. Together, the events offer an early glimpse of the scale, ambition and Aboriginal-led cultural programming taking shape at Tandanya ahead of 2027.

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.”

Silent Country opens on Friday 25 September with the exhibition space from 4.30pm, the formal opening at 5.30pm, a panel at 6.30pm and Electric Fields live at 7.30pm. MC Taigen Ryan will lead a conversation with Yankunytjatjara community leader and buffel grass advocate Zibeon Fielding, researcher Camille Dobson and Brenz Saunders.

Electric Fields, the multi-award-winning electronic-soul duo that represented Australia at Eurovision in 2024, will bring the issue close to home. Vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding grew up in Mimili in the APY Lands, where buffel grass is transforming the Country, culture and community at the heart of Silent Country.

Around them, 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.

Two nights later, Silent Country moves from stage to table. 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: Opening + Panel Talk + Electric Fields Performance will open its exhibition space at 4.30pm, with the formal program running from 5.30pm to 9.00pm on Friday 25 September 2026. View event details.

SILENT COUNTRY: Buffel Grass. Eating the problem? Or the problem eating Country? will run from 5.30pm to 8.30pm on Sunday 27 September 2026. View event details.