Creating opportunities for creative exchange, community participation & collaboration between the Top End and Southeast Asia.

  • OUR PURPOSE

  • Sahul & Sunda Arts was founded in Darwin in 2024 to connect artists and creative communities of northern Australia, the islands of the Arafura and Timor Seas, and Southeast Asia. We focus on communities that are under-recognised or marginalised — both celebrating the incredible art of this region, and making sure that the people who make it are genuinely supported. We also create opportunities for community members to experience these artforms, meet artists and learn from their traditions, setting foundations for new friendships and understandings.

  • We are a community-driven organisation supporting artistic development and cross-cultural collaboration between communities in the Top End and Southeast Asia.

    We celebrate diversity, foster cross-cultural understanding, and facilitate collaborative artistic projects that connect indigenous, diaspora and local communities.
    We operate an artist development fund to support professional development and exchange opportunities for artists from underrepresented communities.

    ABN 11 679 169 549 | ACNC Registered Charity | DGR Endorsed
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Pencelupan / Immersion Hero Shot (image: Genevieve Gorman Deane)

2026

Pencelupan / Immersion

Pencelupan / Immersion is a multi-arts project produced by Sahul & Sunda Arts and premiering at Darwin Festival 2026, bringing visiting Rifa'iyah batik artists from Batang, Central Java to Darwin for the first time, creating a platform for their rarely seen works and a meaningful exchange with local artists and community.

The centrepiece is an exhibition of never-before-seen Rifa'iyah textiles alongside a world premiere dance and music performance, choreographed and performed by Australian-Indonesian dancer Alfira O'Sullivan with original live music by Javanese composer Cahwati Sugiarto, featuring Darwin-based community dancers and Sydney's Suara Dance, presented across three nights among the tropical plants of George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens.

Side events include a documentary screening and Q&A at MAGNT and hands-on Botanical Batik Workshops led by visiting artists Ibu Trihandayani Mulyati and Ibu Nandiroh, where participants can learn the rare art of batik tulis and contribute to a shared community batik piece, a living cross-cultural collaboration that connects Darwin and Java.

This multi-arts project for Darwin Festival is supported by Creative Australia, the Australia Indonesia Institute, Arts NT and the City of Darwin.

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Close up of Ibu Nandiroh creating batik tulis with a canting

2026

Living Motifs: Botanical Batik Walk

Botanical Batik: A Living Motif Walk takes visitors on a guided journey through George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens to encounter the tropical plant species: the "living motifs" that have inspired Rifa'iyah batik for generations. Led by visiting Javanese batik artists Ibu Trihandayani Mulyati and Ibu Nandiroh alongside local botanists, the walk shares stories of each plant's ceremonial, cultural and medicinal significance in Java and the wider region. Complementing the guided walk, an interactive app-based map and a physical map, illustrated with original botanical artwork by Darwin-based Australian-Indonesian artist Tisha Tejaya, will allow visitors to explore the gardens and discover these connections at their own pace, during and beyond the Festival. A bilingual experience, the walk connects Darwin with its Southeast Asian neighbours through shared tropical ecologies and long-standing traditions of cultural and botanical exchange.

2025

Sahul meets Sunda

In July–August 2025, Sahul & Sunda Arts delivered its first project: Sahul meets Sunda, a series of community workshops led by Suara Indonesia, bringing Acehnese and Randai dance traditions to over 120 participants across East Arnhem Land and Darwin.

Workshops ran at the Garma Festival Youth Forum with 80 young Yolŋu and non-indigenous participants, at Tracks Dance with the Grey Panthers senior dance troupe, and with the Red Cross Connected Women, which is a group of women from refugee and migrant backgrounds, many with Southeast Asian heritage.

Supported by the Regional Arts Fund, the Indonesian Consulate Darwin, the Yothu Yindi Foundation and Tracks Dance, the project forged new partnerships and left an appetite for more.

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Sahul & Sunda Arts supports the development of community-based artists and cross-cultural exchange between Northern Australia and Southeast Asia. Help these creative collaborations thrive - donate today.

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  • OUR APPROACH




  • Everything we do is grounded in respect for indigenous cultural practices, for artists' intellectual property, and for the communities we work with. We focus on genuine relationship-building, not just project delivery. As a volunteer-run organisation, we keep our commitments realistic so we can do them well and we measure our success against concrete targets.


  • Our flagship project for 2024–2026 is Immersion/Pencelupan, a co-production bringing together Darwin-based creatives and batik tulis artists from Batang, Central Java. This includes artist residencies, cross-community visits, an exhibition, public workshop series and a joint performance. We aim to involve at least 500 community members through these live events. We're also building relationships between Batang batik artists and textile artists in Arnhem Land, laying the groundwork for future collaborations.