Red Ochres and Other Awards

It was back at the end of May that Creative Australia announced the recipients of the 2026 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards at a ceremony held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Unfortunately, I was away. But I believe these awards deserve recognition for the artists and facilitators recognised. Better late than never!

Those honoured with the prestigious Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement were leading First Nations artist and activist Dr Djambawa Marawili AM, champion curator, writer, and presenter Hetti Kemarre Perkins, Bundjalung artist and illustrator Dr Bronwyn Bancroft, and Broome’s singer-songwriter Stephen Pigram.

Gunditjimara and Djabwurrung artist Hayley Millar Baker, who specialises in feminist film-making, received the Youth Award for Achievement in the Arts, while Sunshine Coast writer and film-director John Harvey, originally from Saibai in the Torres Strait, was awarded Established Artist of the Year Award. Ceduna’s Balya Productions was honoured with the First Nations Arts & Culture Business Innovation Award. Balya was founded by Letisha Ackland, a Gugada/Wirangu and Mirning woman to create culturally safe spaces for First Nations artists and crew at events such as the National Indigenous Music Awards.

Dr. Marawili’s principal role is as a leader of the Madarrpa clan. He is a caretaker for the spiritual well-being of his own and other related clans, and an activist and administrator at the interface between non-Aboriginal people and the Yolŋu people of North East Arnhemland. He was involved in the production of the Barunga Statement (1988), and instigated the Saltwater Collection of bark paintings which led to the successful Blue Mud Bay sea rights claim. He revolutionised art from East Arnhem by encouraging greater flexibility in strict Yolŋu rules, led the peak body the Arnhemland, Northern and Kimberley Artists Aboriginal Corporation (ANKA) for over twenty-five years and won First Prize for his bark in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2019. Djambawa was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council between 2013-2019.

Hetti Perkins is a curator, writer, and presenter from the Arrernte and Kalkadoon Aboriginal communities with over thirty years’ experience in the visual arts. Hetti established the Aborigineal and Torres Strait Islander Art Department and curated major exhibitions such as Papunya Tula : Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Since 2022, she has been curator for Desert Mob at Desart and Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Australia, where she organised the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial and co-co-curated major retrospective of Emily Kam Kngwarreye. She took Emily Kngwarreye to the Venice Biennale and co-curated the Australian Indigenous Art Commission in Paris. She has created documentary series for ABC and SBS/NITV.

Dr Bronwyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung woman and artist. Her career has included both national and international exhibitions. Her work is held in major Australian collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Bronwyn has contributed extensively to Australian children’s literature, authoring/illustrating 50 books. Bronwyn was a Founding Member of Boomalli and has been the Co-operative’s volunteer senior strategist since 2009. Bronwyn is a Director of the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience and a member of the Commonwealth Bank Indigenous Advisory Council.

Stephen Pigram is a Yawuru singer-songwriter from Broome, Western Australia, and one of Australia’s most respected cultural voices. A modern-day Songman, his work spans musicals, theatre, and film, carrying Kimberley stories across generations. Beginning his career in his teens, his songwriting has been central to landmark works including Jimmy Chi’s Bran Nue Dae and Corrugation Road. He was deeply influenced by his father Eric Pigram, his songs act as living archives—preserving ancestral memory, history, and identity over a five-decade long career.

While we’re on the subject of awards, I’d also like to note that Ngan’gikurrungurr artist and cultural leader Regina Pilawuk Wilson, the Queen of Peppimenarti, has been named Female Elder of the Year at the Darwin NAIDOC Gala Ball and Awards Ceremony.

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