Awards for the 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) were announced on Aug 15, 2008.
Despite controversy surrounding the participation of some community art centres that declined to compete because of the involvement of certain commercial galleries, the competition proceeded without apparent complication.
The winners:
Major award – Makinti Napanangka from Kintore for her painting depicting designs associated with the rock hole site of Lupulnga. The Dreaming associated with the site is of a small bird known as the Peewee and Two Women Dreaming.
The Telstra General Painting Award (A$4,000) was given to Doreen Reid Nakamarra. Her winning work of designs associated Marrapinti rock hole site in Western Australia.
The Telstra Bark Painting Award (A$4,000) was presented to Terry Ngamandara Wilson of Gochan Jiny-jirra, Northern Territory. Terry’s work is a design for spike rush (Gulach) that is found in profusion in the swamps of Barlparnarra.
The Telstra Works on Paper Award (A$4,000) was awarded to Dennis Nona from Badu Island, Torres Strait in Queensland for his etching, Dugam. It is named for the harvest star that appears in the early morning sky during August.
The Wandjuk Marika Three-Dimensional Memorial Award (A$4,000), sponsored by Telstra, went to Nyapantapa Yunupingu, a Yolngu artist from Yirrkala, for her installation entitled incidence at Mutpi.
