The Kate Challis RAKA Award

Applications are now closed for the Australian Centre's 2008 Kate Challis RAKA Award, a $25,000 award for indigenous visual artists.

This award for indigenous creative artists has been made available through the generosity of Professor Emeritus Bernard Smith, eminent art and cultural historian. The prize was established to honour the memory of his late wife, Kate Challis, who was known in her youth as Ruth Adeney (RAKA is an acronym for the Ruth Adeney Koori Award).

The award is offered in a five-year cycle with a different area of the arts - creative prose, drama, the visual arts, scriptwriting and poetry - being rewarded each year. In 2008, the award will be for visual arts for a particular work in the field of painting (painting on canvas/paper/fabric/bark), three dimensional work (sculpture, ceramics, glass, fibre art), works on paper (paintings on paper, prints, photography) or other new media.

Previous winners in the visual arts category have been Ricky Maynard (2003) for his photograph, Returning to Places that Name Us/Arthur; Brook Andrew (1998) for his digital photograph, Sexy and Dangerous, and Lin Onus (1993) for his sculptural installation, They took the children away.

Interested artists may submit up to ten images of work for consideration. The $25,000 prize will be awarded to an artist. The prize is non-acquisitive and the artist must have had a solo exhibition or been part of a group exhibition over the past five years - between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007.

The Australian Centre gratefully acknowledges The Ian Potter Museum of Art for its support of the 2008 Kate Challis RAKA Award in Visual Arts.

Download an entry form

2007 Kate Challis RAKA Award

David Milroy - for his play Windmill Baby, set in a pastoral station in the Kimberley. Old Maymay recalls her time as a young girl on the homestead as she recounts the intertwined and silenced histories of the white Boss and Missus and the Aboriginal workers. This tale of love and loss is both moving and funny. Milroy’s script gives voice to the musicality of Aboriginal English in a piece that skilfully combines emotional reach and deft characterisation. David has been involved in theatre in for a number of years as a musician, director and writer. He has written and directed a number of plays including King Hit, Runumuk, Swine River and Windmill Baby.

David was the first coordinator of Dumbartung Aboriginal Artist Advisory and was Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre for seven years. David received a Myer Award in 2002 for his contribution to the development of indigenous theatre. In 2000 David was a guest Director of the American Playwrights Conference in Connecticut and has attended the Australian National Playwrights Conference on a number of occasions as a writer and Director. David won the 2004 Patrick White Award and the 2005 Equity Guild Award for his play Windmill Baby.

PAST WINNERS

2006 - Creative Prose
Vivienne Cleven - In recognition of her literary versatility and poise, the 2006 RAKA Award has been jointly awarded to Cleven's two distinctive and accomplished novels: Bitin' Back and Her Sister's Eye, published by University of Queensland Press. These works challenge stereotypes and give a previously unexpressed voice to Indigenous experience in rural Queensland.

2005 - Poetry
Alexander Brown - for the poetry collection ‘Ngarla Songs’ (published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press). Brown had worked with the linguist Brian Geytenbeek to collect, translate and assemble the most telling songs of the Ngarla People (who retain their ownership of these songs). In the resulting poems in English Brown gives us images, movement, gestures with a direct physicality.

2004 - Script writing
Ivan Sen - for his feature film 'Dust' which was a development of his 2000 short film with the same title. As a short film, ‘Dust’ received an ATOM Award for Best Short Drama; and was a DENDY Awards (Ethnic Affairs) winner in 2000. In addition to ‘Dust’, Ivan has received a number of awards for his work, including the 2002 Australian Film Institute Award: Best Achievement In Direction for ‘Beneath Clouds’ which was also officially selected for the 2003 Sundance International Film Festival. Ivan has also exhibited at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and produced documentaries for ABC television.

2003 - Visual Arts
Ricky Maynard for his photograph, 'Returning to Places that Name Us/Arthur (2000).

Ricky Maynard is a documentary photographer of national and international repute. He has received a number of awards for his work, including the Mother Jones InternationalDocumentary Award (1994) and the Australian Human Rights Award for Photography (1997). His work is represented in major galleries and museums across Australia.

Maynard's photograph 'Arthur' is one of a series of portraits of Wik community elders, entitled 'Returning to Places that Name Us'. The portraits are the result of a visit Maynard made to Aurukum.

2002 - Drama
For the first time in twelve years, the judging panel named two winners of the Kate Challis RAKA Award: Jane Harrison for her play, Stolen, and Dallas Winmar for her play, Aliwa.

Stolen (Jane Harrison) examined one of the most important and complex issues for contemporary Australia, the heartrending stories of the Stolen Generation. In her play, Harrison provides the opportunity to think about the powerful meanings of these experiences. The production of the play was a defining one and the script was evocative, at once personal and representational of Aboriginal lives.

Aliwa (Dallas Winmar) is a warm, affectionate, nostalgic family history. It is an uplifting, empowering, positive story about the everyday lives of Aboriginal people, with appeal to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences.

2001 - Creative Prose
Kim Scott for his recent novel Benang.

Kim Scott is a descendant of the Nyoongar who have always lived along the south-east coast of Western Australia. He began writing for publication shortly after he became a secondary school teacher of English. His first novel, True Country, was published in 1993, and he has published poetry and short stories in a range of anthologies.
In recent years, Kim has received grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council and the WA Department of Arts to enable him to devote more time to writing.

His most recent novel, Benang, was published in 1999 by Fremantle Arts Centre Press. It won the 1999 WA Premier's Book Award in both the fiction and overall categories, the 2000 Miles Franklin Literary Award (shared with Thea Astley), and now the 2001 Kate Challis RAKA Award.

2000 - Poetry
John Muk Muk Burke for his collection, Night Song and other poems.

John Muk Muk Burke is a Wiradjuri man from southern NSW. His David Unaipon Prize-winning novel, Bridge of Triangles, appeared in 1994, and he has published poetry and numerous articles as well as being a guest editor of Northern Perspective.

Burke has a BA in Philosophy from Auckland and a MA in English Literature from Northern Territory University. He is a lecturer in the Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at NTU.

1999 - Scriptwriting
Rima Tamou for the script for his short film, `Round Up'.

After earning a BA in media production and Asian studies at Griffith University, Tamou went on to the Australian Film, Television and Radio School indigenous training course, furthering his technical experience in lighting, sound recording and camera operation, as well as his creative experience in scriptwriting, and directing.
'Round Up' tells the story of two country boys who discover that their differences are not so great when they find themselves in the `big smoke'. Tamou also directed the film.

1998 - Visual Arts
Brook Andrew for his digital photograph, Sexy & Dangerous.

Brook Andrew lectures at Sydney University and has been a committee member for Sydney's Mardi Gras celebration. As well as solo exhibitions, he has been included in many group exhibitions in galleries around Australia. His work is represented in a number of collections, including the Art Gallery of NSW and the National Gallery of Victoria which purchased Sexy & Dangerous in 1999.

1997 - Drama
John Harding for his play, Up The Road.

John Harding is a prominent Aboriginal community worker, playwright and director. He has been a Koori Liaison Officer at this University, a former senior project officer for Aboriginal education in Victoria and has been a ministerial adviser for the Victorian Department of Aboriginal Affairs. More recently, he has combined his role as National Employment Co-ordinator at the Australian Film Commission with writing and directing for radio, television and the theatre.

1996 - Creative Prose
Mudrooroo for his introduction to indigenous Australia, Us Mob.

Mudrooroo's writing career began in 1965 with the first Aboriginal novel, Wildcat Falling. Six novels, three poetry collections, two critical works and a non-fiction guide to Aboriginal mythology followed, along with extensive critical and creative contributions to international anthologies, journals and mass media.

Active in Aboriginal cultural affairs, Mudrooroo co-founded the Aboriginal Writers', Oral Literature and Dramatists' Association with Jack Davis, and has served on the board of the Aboriginal Arts Unit of the Australia Council.

1995 - Poetry
Kevin Gilbert for his collection of poetry, Black from the Edge.

Until his much-lamented death in 1993, Gilbert was widely respected as one of Australia's finest poets and a powerful spokesman for the rights of his people. He was posthumously awarded the RAKA.
Gilbert's involvement in the struggle for Aboriginal rights led to two important political landmarks: the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra that he initiated in 1972, and the `Treaty 88' campaign, that worked for a sovereign treaty between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians under his chairmanship.

His oral history, Living Black, won the National Book Council Award in 1978, and in 1988 he was awarded, and refused, the Human Rights Award for Literature. Gilbert's art work is represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia by linocuts and photographic murals.

1994 - Scriptwriting
Tracey Moffatt for the script for her first feature film, `Bedevil', which was screened at both the 1993 Melbourne Film Festival and the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Moffatt wrote and directed the 90-minute trilogy of ghost stories that she heard as a child growing up in suburban Brisbane. The film draws upon the worlds of her Aboriginal and Irish family with whom she lived alternately. "If you are looking for a story, you can always open the family closet", she has said.

Moffat is a graduate of the Queensland College of the Arts, where she studied film and video production. She is also an accomplished photographer, and her work is represented in major public and private collections.

1993 - Visual Arts
Lin Onus for his sculptural installation, They took the children away.

Lin Onus was born in Melbourne in 1948 and worked as a self-taught painter and sculptor from 1974 until his premature death in 1996. Amongst the many prizes and commendations he received, he was the recipient of the National Aboriginal Art Award in Darwin in 1988. Onus had a long association with the Australia Council, having been the Victorian representative on the Aboriginal Arts Board and Chairman of the Aboriginal Arts Committee.

" The combination of imagery from traditional and contemporary Aboriginal sources and from western art reflected his broader mission of reconciling cultural differences. As a Koori person, he was also an activist, a teacher, a writer and a visual historian for his people." (Margo Neale, Curator, Queensland Art Gallery, from the catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition `Urban Dingo')

1992 - Drama
Jack Davis for his play, No Sugar.

Jack Davis worked on cattle stations in the far north-west of Western Australia as a young man. In 1967 he was appointed Manager of the Perth Aboriginal Centre and in 1970 he published his first book of poetry. For services to his people, he received the British Empire Medal in 1977 and became a member of the Order of Australia in 1985. Amongst his many achievements, he established a course for Aboriginal writers at Murdoch University.

Davis's play, No Sugar, received international acclaim when it represented Australia at the World Theatre Festival in Canada in 1986, and was co-winner that year of the Australian Writers' Guild award for best stage play.

1991 - Creative Prose
Bill Rosser for his book, Up Rode the Troopers: The Black Police in Queensland.

Bill Rosser, formerly a timber cutter and bullock driver, began writing in 1974 after he discovered the suppression and brutality directed at his people in an Aboriginal reserve on Palm Island, which was set up under Queensland's Aboriginal Act. His third book, Up Rode the Troopers, is an account of how the mounted Aboriginal native police in Queensland were cajoled by white police into killing their own kind in the 1800s.