At the Sydney Opera House on Monday May 27, the Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board proudly presented the $50,000 Red Ochre Award, Australia’s highest peer-assessed award for an Indigenous artist; to actor, dancer, choreographer and painter David Gulpilil, OAM.
Also presented was the $20,000 Dreaming Award, for a young and emerging Indigenous artist, awarded to Rhonda Dick, a photographer from South Australia; and Two fellowships of $45,000 per year over two years to visual artist, Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello; and writer, activist and musician Richard Frankland.
“The Australia Council’s National Indigenous Arts Awards highlight the outstanding achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists” says Rupert Myer, AM, Chair of the Australia Council. “They celebrate the continuity and dynamism of contemporary Indigenous cultures in Australia.”
The 2013 Dreaming Award, which is given to an artist aged between 18 and 26 to support them to create a major body of work, while being mentored in a chosen discipline by another established professional artist or by an arts institution nominated by the artist.
Twenty-six year old receipient Rhonda Unurupa Dick is Pitjantjatjara and a photographic artist from the community of Amata in South Australia. Soon after starting a job as an arts worker at the local Tjala Arts Centre in January 2012 she discovered her love of photography and devoted herself to its practice.
“Rhonda’s work is about her family, her community and her country,” says Lee-Ann. “It attracted attention as soon as she started to show it, receiving the inaugural Desart Annual Aboriginal Arts Worker Prize 2012, for her series entitled My great grandmothers’ country.”
“It’s a joy to support this emerging artist who will undoubtedly create something wonderful from the opportunity, “says Lee-Ann Buckskin, Chair of the Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board.
The Dreaming Award comes with a prize of $20,000 which Rhonda will use to study photography at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney under the mentorship of photographer Nici Cumpston. After spending a year developing new work and her practice Rhonda’s works will be displayed at a solo exhibition at the Outstation Gallery in Darwin and at Gallery Gabriella Pizzi in Melbourne.
Images of Dreaming Award receipient Rhonda Unurupa Dick
Photo credit: Caroline McCredie
