Frustrated by years of unsuccessful advocacy to upgrade the Yiribana Gallery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and stalled exhibition proposals, Hetti Perkins has resigned from the gallery to pursue her vision for a national indigenous cultural centre in Sydney.

The daughter of the late Aboriginal activist and politician Charles Perkins, she is considered to be one of Australia's most influential indigenous art curators – a view shared by outgoing AGNSW director Edmund Capon who describes her as a “stand-out curator” who will continue to undertake work for the gallery on contract.

Perkins says the proposed centre would display the full spectrum of indigenous arts including performance art, new media work and sound installations as well as more traditional paintings and crafts.