Works about the devastating impact of nuclear testing, climate change and the COVID pandemic sit side-by-side with personal stories of love and homages to land in the most significant Indigenous art awards in Australia.
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra has won the main prize, worth $100,000, in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for her massive woven sail, titled. The extraordinarily intricate work is a reminder of how closely the northern Australians worked with Macassans, from the region that now makes up part of Indonesia.
Garrawurra remembers watching her father making a sail like this – his grandfather had been taught by the Macassans and passed on the skill to his son – and was inspired to create one remembering him. It took about eight months to make: the process involves harvesting the pandanus, using bush dyes to colour it, and then weaving it.reflects the historical and enduring relationships between her people and the people of modern-day Indonesia.
NATSIAA winner and senior Yolngu artist Margaret Rarru Garrawurra with her winning art work Dhomala .The NATSIAAs were presented on Larrakia land at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at an open-air ceremony on Friday night. The prize pool for the awards has increased this year, with the main prize worth $100,000 and the other categories worth $15,000. Funds for acquisitions by MAGNT have increased from $10,000 to $50,000., received the Works on Paper Award.