The First Nations Arts and Culture Awards are held each year on the 27th May, anniversary of the 1967 referendum win. In 2025, the prestigious Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement has been expanded to recognise senior artists for their achievement in advocacy and leadership, and three new categories introduced to reflect the growing diversity of First Nations arts leadership across generations and industries. Senior First Nations cultural leaders are also benefiting from an advanced training program sponsored by Wesfarmers.

Tonight we learnt of these winners:
Red Ochre Awards for Lifetime Achievement with a $60,000 prize
For Artistic Excellence
Prof Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO
Deborah, who is Yorta Yorta by birth, made her debut as a performer in 1995 in the acclaimed autobiographical play, White Baptist Abba Fan. From then on, she has worked tirelessly to create opportunities for First Nations singers, musicians, composers, conductors and visual artists.
She wrote Australia’s first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer and needed to bring together First Nations singers from around Australia for vocal training at the Victorian College of the Arts to sing in its world premiere in October 2010. Following that, Deborah established Short Black Opera Company and Ensemble Dutala, Australia’s first ATSI chamber music ensemble.
In 2021 Deborah began a five year appointment as the MSO’s First Nations Creative Chair and in 2023 she was appointed Chair of Vocal Studies at The Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Lionel Fogarty is a Yugambeh man and was born in the Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve. Throughout the 1970s, he worked as an activist for Land Rights and protested Aboriginal deaths in custody. He has published numerous collections of poetry, including the award-winning Connection Requital, Mogwie-Idan: Stories of the land, and Eelahroo (Long Ago) Nyah (Looking) Mobo-Mobo (Future). His poetry can be seen as an extension of his activism; common themes include the maintenance of traditional Aboriginal culture and the effects of European occupation. He uses Aboriginal language in his poetry in an attempt to develop a dialogue between Australian cultures. Lionel won the Kate Challis RAKA Award in 2015 for Mogwie-Idan: Stories of the Land
 
For Cultural Advocacy and Leadership $60,000 each
Dr Shellie Morris AO
Shellie has spent the past 25 years honing her skills as a story teller and musician. She has learnt from communities around the world and worked with them engaging in music as a healing tool. While best known for her involvement with the Black Arm Band, she mostly works on the ground gently effecting change. Since discovering her Yanyuwa and Wardaman roots, she has worked in more than 80 remote and urban Indigenous communities delivering workshops in songwriting, singing, arranging, composing and performance to Indigenous children, young people, adults and elders.
In 2021, Shellie was ​recognised for her unique contribution to music on these lands with a Doctor of Music by the University of Sydney

Lily Shearer
Lily Shearer is a proud citizen of the Murrwarri Republic & Ngemba Nation from Brewarrina with 40+ years experience in First Peoples Cultural Development, Arts Management and in Theatre and Performance making. A land-based storyteller, Lily collaborates with communities, emerging and established artists of all genres, enabling stories for the stage, festivals, music, installation and film. She established Moogahlin Performing Arts in 2007 and outlined her philosophy in Protocols of Engagement: ‘Community Cultural Development’ Encounters an Urban Aboriginal Experience in 2009.

Youth Award for Achievement in the Arts  $25,000
Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu
Gutiŋarra’s filmic self-portraits, created at The Mulka Project in Yirrkala, explore his connection to Country and the centrality of ceremony in community life. For the artist, ceremonies have always been and will always be the backbone of his life and work. Born deaf, Yunupiŋu’s work tests the possibilities of non-verbal communication in examining and representing self and culture. He has won the Telstra NATSIA Multimedia Award.

Established Artist of the Year Award $25,000
Dr Tony Albert, from the Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples, came out ahead of his shortlisted fellow artist, Yhonnie Scarce in a year when he’s handed over the Sydney Biennale Fondation Cartier Indigenous curatorship to Bruce McLean, only to take on the National Gallery’s Triennial leadership in December. Called ‘After The Rain’, it will showcase ten immersive new projects by established and emerging First Nations artists exploring ideas of rebirth.

First Nations Arts & Culture Business Innovation Award  $25,000
Iltja Ntjarra Many Hands Art Centre is the home of the Namatjira artists. The art centre, which has a special focus on supporting the ‘Hermannsburg School’ style watercolour artists, started operating in 2004. Excitingly, they have identified the site for a new art centre in Todd Mall. It is a big step for them. “It means we will be closer to town mob and tourists and other visitors will be able to find us and come see our work, taking our rightful place in the heart of the town, not on the fringes,” commented Iltja Ntjara Chair, Vanessa Inkamala. They will also feature in Tony Albert’s Triennial in December.

First Nations Fellowships, $ 80,000 each
Performing arts trailblazer, Ben Graetz was born in Darwin and is a descendant of the Iwaidja and Malak Malak clans in the NT and of Badu Island in the Torres Strait. Ben has been working in the performing arts sector for 24 years as a performer, director, producer, writer, MC and artistic director. He is the co-director of Party Passport – a company that creates events that celebrate diversity and inclusion, with a particular focus on First Nations LGBTQIA+ Brotherboy and Sistergirl communities. Ben was awarded LGBTI Person of the Year in 2018 and is currently creative director for the National Indigenous Music Awards and was co-festival creative director for Sydney WorldPride 2023.

Candice Lorrae is a proud First Nations woman with Jawoyn and Torres Strait Islander heritage. She is a singer/songwriter and music producer, one half of the electronic pop duo The Merindas, known for their ethereal, folk-inspired dream pop sound.

Meanwhile in Canberra, the National Gallery has announced a new initiative which builds on the work of the Dhiraamalang: Wesfarmers First Nations Arts Leadership Program which has operated since 2010. Wayanha is designed for alumni of Dhiraamalang who have at least 10 years of leadership experience and are passionate about creating transformative change in their communities and industries.

Five participants have been selected for the inaugural Wayanha program: Troy Casey and Amanda Hayman from Blacklash, Canberra’s Paul Girrawah House, Perth-based Carly Lane (the WA Premier’s partner), and Shay Vigona-Goudge, CEO of Outback NT. The program will be led by the NGA’s First Nations Leadership team and includes local, national and international engagement opportunities as well as peer-to-peer learning. In July, participants will travel to the United Kingdom and locations across Europe, and the program concludes in December with a five-day workshop at the National Gallery bringing together leaders from the arts, culture, academic and social justice sectors with a focus on transforming leadership practices, coinciding with Tony Albert’s Triennial, which includes Blacklash.