tên tôi: On-Site with Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo

Names can connect us and embody our stories. tên tôi is a community-driven project that embraces and celebrates ethnic names through bead-making workshops and participatory installations.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thảo is an artist, curator and educator who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. Her current art and research practice focusses on the weaponisation of language against Asian Australians, and how creative practice can notice, understand and ultimately resist against the impacts of Whiteness. tên tôi embraces and celebrates ethnic names through community-based workshops and a participatory art installation. 

First Site visitors are invited to engage in an exchange; to 'take' and/or 'leave' a name, contributing to a collective narrative of identity and belonging. Visitors can craft bracelets with names of their choosing, using unique ceramic and clay beads handmade by individuals from across Canada, America, Japan, and Australia. They can then choose to leave this name bracelet for another person to take, and/or take an existing name bracelet.

Opening Hours

11am - 5pm Tuesday to Friday

Closed on public and University holidays

Info for schools and groups of more than 10

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Icon / Small / Calendar Created with Sketch. 07 Mar 2026
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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures