Australia Council Awards
This month, we congratulate the winners of the 2022 Australia Council Awards, which duly honour the outstanding contributions artists make to their artforms and to the cultural life of the nation.
The recipients are: Dr Judy Bailey OAM, Don Banks Music Award; Susie Dee, Theatre Award, Robert Dessaix, Lifetime Achievement in Literature; Dr Jenny Fraser, Emerging and Experimental Arts Award; Helen Herbertson, Dance Award; Leah Jing McIntosh, Kirk Robson Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development; Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Visual Arts Award; and Pat Rix, Ros Bower Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development.
With regard for their exceptional achievements Adrian Collette AM CEO Australia Council for the Arts says, “It is a privilege to recognise these remarkable artists - whose work has connected us and helped shape our cultural identity. The Australia Council Awards have been held in various forms for more than 30 years, recognising the luminaries and trailblazers of Australian arts and culture.”
Working within a fluid screen-based practice, Dr Fraser's current focus is geared towards the practice of healing through Bush Foods, Plant Medicine, Flower Essences, and other Body Work, and using the raw energy of plants, helping people to help themselves while revitalising ancient practices of her old people from the Migunberri Yugambeh Country in the Northern Bundjalung, on the border district between South East Queensland and the New South Wales Northern Rivers region.
Inkamala is a pottery artist, the Chair, and founding and now senior member of Hermannsburg Potters Aboriginal Corporation, Northern Territory, established in 1993. She is an inspiring and respected leader in her community of Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and is recognised for her unwavering dedication and commitment to intergenerational sharing of cultural and ceramic knowledge. Working across sculpting and painting for over three decades, Inkamala has continued to illustrate her lived histories and distinct Western Arrarnta Country, speaking to her cultural beliefs, traditions, and values.
Head to the Australia Council for the Arts website to find out more about the 2022 Australia Council Awards recipients, their motivations, inspirations, and
