Western Australian artist Noli Rictor wins $100,000 art prize
The winners of Australia's richest and most prestigious indigenous art awards have been announced, with an artist from remote Western Australia taking the top prize. The national aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards have been celebrating first nations creations for more than 40 years. The works are on display at Darwin’s Museum and art gallery of the northern territory until January.
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00:00If walls could talk, these would tell stories of country, colonisation and family.
00:08The exhibition showcasing some of Australia's most profound Indigenous art.
00:13The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards is the longest running and most prestigious Indigenous art award in this country
00:20and has nurtured and celebrated the richness and diversity of contemporary Indigenous art for over 40 years.
00:26Taking home the top prize of $100,000 is Nole Richter.
00:31He may well be the youngest first contact person in Australia,
00:35having survived in the Western Australian desert with only his immediate family until 1986.
00:41His painting depicts the journey of a father and son water serpent creating rock holes on his country, as his interpreter explains.
00:59Their kind of footprints through the country are known to Nole, especially because as a young man he actually drank from these rock holes.
01:07Other works too aim to keep the dreaming stories alive, like this one from Maningrida artist Obed Namariki.
01:24Judges had the difficult job of narrowing over 70 finalists down to a winner's circle of seven.
01:30And this year's exhibition is particularly special with over 60% of the works done by women and an increasing number of emerging artists taking part.
01:39It's really an exciting time for all of us as a community of artists.
01:44It's a coming together and that's always the way I have felt about this. This is the big one.
01:51Exceptional works of art telling exceptional stories.