indigenous new media-making

inaugural telstra natsiaa new media prize

Mokuy, Nawurapu Wunungmurra courtesy the artist and Museum & Art Gallery of NT

THE 27TH TELSTRA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART AWARDS (NATSIAA) HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED. THERE IS ADDITIONAL EXCITEMENT THIS YEAR AS A NEW PRIZE CATEGORY HAS BEEN INTRODUCED IN RECOGNITION OF THE GROWING NUMBER OF INDIGENOUS ARTISTS WHO ARE EMBRACING NEW MEDIA AS PART OF THEIR ARTISTIC PRACTICE.

Previously, such works fell into the Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award category where, for example, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu won in 2008 with her bark painting and video installation Incident at Mutpi, 1975 (RT87, p10).

The inaugural Telstra New Media Prize has been awarded to Nawurapu Wunungmurra for his work Mokuy.

Mokuy (spirit) is an elegant sound sculpture with video projection that evokes images and sounds of the coming together of spirits associated with sacred yams, “Morning Star feathers,” scrub fowl and doves at the sacred ground called Balambala: “The Yirritja mokuy come in on the birds djilawurr (scrub fowl) and bugutj-bugutj (banded fruit dove). The Dhuwa mokuy, they come in from rangi side (saltwater)” (Quoted material from awards website). RT

The 27th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. www.nt.gov.au/nreta/museums/exhibitions/natsiaa/

RealTime issue #99 Oct-Nov 2010 pg. 24

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