Aurukun artist Keith Wikmunea wins Telstra Art Award
The prestigious NATSIAA awards for Indigenous artists are being held for the first time since allegations emerged about white hands on black art.
Aurukun artist Keith Wikmunea’s timber sculpture is twice his size and crowded with the avian totems of his ancestors, the white cockatoo and galah.
Carved in milk wood and painted with the circular markings of the Thu’ Apalech clan, the sculpture called Ku’, Theewith & Kalampang: The White Cockatoo, Galah and the Wandering Dog is both a public statement and a personal signature.
“The sculpture is my totem,” he said. “The white cockatoo is my main totem, and the galah is my mother’s main totem.”
The sculpture on Friday was named winner of the main prize in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, worth $100,000. “I’m going to buy myself a boat,” Wikmunea said.
Established 40 years ago, the NATSIAA is the most prestigious award for Indigenous visual artists. Other major winners this year include Julie Nangala Robertson with her painting Mina Mina, Owen Yalandja with his bark painting Ngalkodjek Yawkyawk, and Brenda L. Croft won the award for works on paper with blood/memory: Brenda & Christopher II.
This year’s award ceremony, at the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, is the first since The Australian’s investigations into white hands on black art sent shockwaves through the sector.
None of the artists associated with the APY Arts Centre Collective were award winners.
The other winners were Anne Nginyangka Thompson for her ceramic vessels, Anangu History; Jimmy John Thaiday for his video work Just Beneath the Surface; Dhalmula Burarrwanga was named best emerging artist for her bark paintings wanha, dhika, nhawi?; and Balwaldja Wanapa Mununggurr was highly commended for his drawing, Exile.