RAKA, which means ‘five’ in the Pintupi language, is awarded to an Indigenous artist in one of five categories annually, including creative prose, poetry, script writing, drama and visual arts.
Emerging Indigenous artist Yhonnie Scarce has been named the 2018 Kate Challis RAKA Award recipient for her contribution to the visual arts using blown glass.
Yhonnie Scarce, Strontium 90 Fallout Babies, 2016, blown glass, acrylic and found hospital cribs, variable dimensions. Photograph: Daniel Boud.
The 2018 judging panel included: Elizabeth Heathcote, daughter of Professor Emeritus Bernard Smith and Kate Challis; Dr Kate Challis, granddaughter of Professor Emeritus Bernard Smith and Kate Challis; Professor Ian McLean, Hugh Ramsay Chair in Australian Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne; Dr Gregory Lehman, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne; and Hannah Presley, Curator, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
‘Yhonnie Scarce has made an impressive start as an artist in the difficult and crowded contemporary artworld,’ said McLean. ‘Evocative of the tragic histories that have shaped the contemporary world, her art opens a moving space in which we the living can reflect on our inherited debts.’
Born in Woomera, South Australia, and belonging to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples, Melbourne-based artist Yhonnie Scarce said she was deeply honoured to receive the prize.
‘I would like to thank the donor Bernard Smith for his generosity and the judges for choosing my work as the winner for 2018,’ Scarce said.
‘The financial support from this award will enable me to continue my field work nationally and internationally, encouraging the development of new work, particularly related to the colonisation of Australia and the ongoing issues that continue to affect Aboriginal people today.’
Each RAKA (or the Ruth Adeney Koori Award) recipient receives $20,000 to help encourage Indigenous artists and advance recognition of Aboriginal achievements in the arts.
The 2019 award will recognise scriptwriting in film or television.
Applications open in May 2019 with more information available online.
