The Red Ochre Award is an annual art award for

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

artists.

Background and description

The Red Ochre Award was established in 1993 by the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

. It is awarded annually to an outstanding Indigenous Australian (

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped ...

) artist for lifetime achievement. is one of four categories awarded at the First Nations Arts Awards (formerly National Indigenous Arts Awards) on 27 May each year.

Recipients

2020s

Stephen Page Stephen George Page (born 1965) is an Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He is the current artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company. Page is descended from the Nunukul peopl ...

AO (2022) *

Destiny Deacon Destiny Deacon (born 1957) is an Indigenous Australian photographer and media artist. She has exhibited photographs and films across Australia and also internationally, focusing on politics and exposing the disparagement around Indigenous Austr ...

(2022) * Yorna (Donny) Woolagoodja (2021) *Dr

Lou Bennett Lou Bennett (May 18, 1926, Philadelphia – February 10, 1997, Paris) was an American jazz organist. Bennett first played bebop on piano, but started playing organ in 1956 after hearing Jimmy Smith. Bennett toured the U.S. with an organ trio bet ...

AM (2021) * Alison Milyika Carroll (2020) * Djon Mundine OAM (2020)

2010s

Jack Charles Jack Charles (5 September 1943 – 13 September 2022), also known as Uncle Jack Charles, was an Australian stage and screen actor and activist, known for his advocacy for Aboriginal people. He was involved in establishing the first Indigenous t ...

(2019) * Lola Greeno (2019) * Mavis Ngallametta (2018) *

John Mawurndjul John Mawurndjul (born 1951) is a highly regarded Australian contemporary Indigenous artist. He uses traditional motifs in innovative ways to express spiritual and cultural values, and is especially known for his distinctive and innovative creat ...

AM (2018) *

Lynette Narkle Lynette Narkle, (born 1946) is an Australian indigenous theatre and film actor and director. Education Narkle studied Theatre and Drama from 2002 at Murdoch University in Perth. Career Narkle started in theatre in 1979, with indigenous playwri ...

(2017) *

Ken Thaiday Snr Ken Thaiday (born 1950), known as Ken Thaiday Snr, is an artist from Erub (Darnley Island), one of the Torres Strait Islands. He is known for his headdresses ( dhari), masks, shark totems and kinetic sculptures, which connect to his island tradi ...

(2017) *

Yvonne Koolmatrie Yvonne Koolmatrie (born 1944) is an Australian artist and weaver of the Ngarrindjeri people, working in South Australia. Early life Koolmatrie was born in Wudinna, South Australia, Wudinna, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Her father was a Ko ...

(2016) * Dr

Gary Foley Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbainggir people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Abo ...

(2015) *

Hector Burton Hector Tjupuru Burton (1937 - 27 February 2017) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. He is a leading artist from Amaṯa, in north-western South Australia. His work has been shown in exhibitions since 2003, in several cities in Australia and ot ...

(2014) *

David Gulpilil David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 November 2021), known professionally as David Gulpilil and posthumously (at his family's request, to avoid naming the dead) as David Dalaithngu for three days, was an Indigenous Australian actor ...

AM (2013) *

Warren H. Williams Warren Hedley Williams (born 27 December 1963) is an Aboriginal Australian singer, musician and songwriter from Hermannsburg, Northern Territory, Hermannsburg in Central Australia. As of 2013 he worked as a Radio personality, broadcaster on Cent ...

(2012) *

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Western Bundjalung people, Bundjalu ...

(2011) *

Michael Leslie Michael Leslie (born 28 January 1993) is a former Scottish professional snooker player. Leslie turned professional in 2012 after winning the 2012 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championships and gained a two-year tour card for the 2012–13 ...

(2010)

2000s

* Gawirrin Gumana AO (2009) *

Doris Pilkington Garimara Doris Pilkington Garimara (born Nugi Garimara; c. 1 July 1937 – 10 April 2014), also known as Doris Pilkington, was an Australian author. Garimara wrote ''Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'' (1996), a story about the stolen generation, and base ...

AM (2008) * (2007) *

Tom E. Lewis Tom E. Lewis (traditional name: Balang Lewis; 25 August 1958 – 10 May 2018) was an Australian actor and musician. He was an Indigenous Australian from the Murrungun people. His first major role was the title role in the 1978 Fred Schepisi film ' ...

(2006) *

Seaman Dan Henry Gibson Dan (25 August 1929– 30 December 2020), known as Seaman Dan, an Indigenous Australian, was a Torres Strait Islander singer-songwriter with a national and international reputation whose first recording was released in 2000. His al ...

(2005) *

Johnny Bulunbulun Johnny Bulunbulun (1946-2010) was a Ganalbingu Aboriginal artist. He had a posthumous joint exhibition with Zhou Xiaoping in Beijing and Melbourne, called " Trepang: China & the Story of Macassan - Aboriginal Trade". Awards Since 1993, the ...

(2004) *

Jimmy Little James Oswald Little, AO (1 March 19372 April 2012) was an Australian Aboriginal musician, actor and teacher, who was a member of the Yorta Yorta tribe and was raised on the Cummeragunja Reserve, New South Wales. Little started his profess ...

(2003) * Dorothy Peters AM (2002) *

Banduk Marika Banduk Mamburra Wananamba Marika (13 October 1954 – 12 July 2021) was an artist and printmaker from Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. She was a member of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people, whose traditional land is Yalangba ...

AO (2001) *

Mervyn Bishop Mervyn Bishop (born July 1945) is an Australian news and documentary photographer. Joining ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' as a cadet in 1962 he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first to b ...

(2000)

1990s

* Justine Saunders OAM (1999) *

Bob Maza Robert Lewis Maza (25 November 1939 – 14 May 2000), known as Bob Maza, was an Aboriginal Australian actor, playwright and activist. Early life and education Robert Lewis Maza was born on Palm Island in North Queensland on 25 November 1939, ...

AM (1998) *

Jimmy Chi James Ronald Chi (1948 – 26 June 2017) was an Australian composer, musician and playwright. His best known work is the 1990 musical ''Bran Nue Dae'' which was adapted for film in 2009. Early life Chi was born in Broome, Western Australia in ...

(1997) *

Maureen Watson Maureen Watson, also known as "Aunty Maureen" (9 November 1931 – 4 January 2009), was a supporter of Aboriginal rights in Australia, actor, vocalist, writer, musician and storyteller. Early life and education Watson was born on 9 November 193 ...

(1996) *The

Mills Sisters __NOTOC__ The Mills Sisters, formerly known as the Singing Grandmas, were a group of three sisters from Torres Strait Islands, Rita Mills and twins Cessa and Ina. Early life Ina and Cessa, who were twins, were born in 1927, and Rita in 1934, ...

(1995) *

Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri (b.c.1926 at Marnpi southeast of Kintore, Northern Territory – 1998), was one of the most important painters to emerge from the Western Desert. From the Pintupi language group, Mick Namarari was one of the foundati ...

(1994) *

Eva Johnson Eva Knowles Johnson (born 1946) is an Aboriginal Australian poet, actor, director and playwright. Early life Eva Knowles Johnson belongs to the Malak Malak people and was born in 1946 at Daly River in the Northern Territory. At the age of two, ...

(1993)

References

Awards established in 1993 Arts awards in Australia {{award-stub