Port Adelaide, SAPort Adelaide, SA 

Wherever we come from, water is part of our story. It may be the river where you played as a child, the beach where your family gathers, the local pool where you learned to swim, the rain you waited for, or the ocean crossed on a journey to a new home.

Sea Country to Safe Harbour invites you to share what water means to you. This welcoming, all-ages experience connects freshwater and saltwater storytelling in First Nations Australia with the journeys of people who have crossed oceans to make Australia home.

Explore community stories, maps and sensory activities. Join a workshop, listen to the experiences of others, or contribute a memory in your own way. Your story may be joyful or challenging, recent or long remembered, personal or shared through family and community. You do not need to be a storyteller - simply bring a memory, object, sound, place or feeling connected to water.

Each contribution helps this living exhibition grow and reflect the people and waterways of your community. Together, our water stories can reveal what we share, honour what makes us different and create new connections across cultures and generations.

In Port Adelaide, the project is framed by the identity of a working port: a place of arrival and departure, industry and exchange, movement and memory. Port Adelaide’s maritime character gives the project a direct relationship to harbour, trade, travel and the movement of people, goods and stories across water.

The Port Adelaide project will explore the intersection of First Nations connection to Country, port histories, migration experiences and contemporary community life. It is a place where stories of saltwater, estuary and harbour can sit alongside stories of labour, settlement, family memory and cultural continuity.

Elders, artists and community participants bring their own stories, practices and objects into the space, allowing interpretation to be led by those who hold the knowledge. This exhibition is not simply about Port Adelaide but made with Port Adelaide.

Workshop program details will be announced soon. Please check back for updates.