Australia Council Awards Recipients 2019

David Bridie – Australia Council Don Banks Music Award

Seven time ARIA award winning songwriter and composer David Bridie has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of Australia’s most innovative musicians. His repertoire ranges from recording artist to soundtrack composer, producer, lyricist, songwriter and singer, as well as specialist in the music of Melanesia, Bridie has certainly stamped his mark.

A founding member and songwriter of critically acclaimed musical groups Not Drowning Waving and My Friend The Chocolate Cake, Bridie has balanced his career as a live musician with the composition of soundtrack music, with credits for over 16 Feature films including Satellite Boy, Proof, Bran Nue Dae, The Man Who Sued God and Gone. His score for In a Savage Landlanded Bridie the award for “Best Original Score” at the AFI Awards, “Best Original Soundtrack” by the Film Critics Circle of Australia, and “Best Soundtrack Album” at the 2000 ARIA Awards. Credits for his 29 television/short films/documentaries soundtracks include Remote Area Nurse for which he won an AFI Award, “Winner Best Independent Release” ARIA Award; and The Whitlam Documentary; MABO, among others

David has always explored his particular passion for Melanesian life, music and history. Now regarded as the world’s foremost producer of Melanesian music artists, David has been instrumental in launching the musical careers of many of these artists including George Telek (PNG) who is now considered an elder statesman of Music in his home country and had his music released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. Other producing credits include Archie Roach’s Jamu Dreaming, Christine Anu’s Stylin Up and West Papuan string band Black Paradise’s Spirit Of Mambesak. Perhaps most importantly is his recent work with Pitjantjatjara man Frank Yamma for whom he has resurrected and relaunched a career that had been stymied by tragedy and the everyday challenges faced by indigenous men in Australia.

Full bio and headshot.

Fablice Manirakiza – Kirk Robson Award

Fablice Manirakiza is a young leader from Burundi who has made an incredible impact on the local Burundian community in Victoria, the broader Australian arts sector, and his home country. Fablice has already traversed a remarkable journey, beginning with his escape from the military as a child soldier in war-torn Burundi, surviving refugee camps in Tanzania (Lukole), to his arrival in Australia in 2007.

Since arriving in Australia, Fablice has established himself as an artist of influence in Melbourne’s cultural landscape, working as a community cultural development worker to create connections between CALD youth and communities across Victoria. He has drawn heavily from his hip hop/rap practice to create interactive workshops for young people from marginalised communities focusing on song composition, beat making, music video production and performance skills.

In 2014, Fablice commenced working at Multicultural Arts Victoria as a Youth Arts and Cultural Development Officer and subsequently founded MAV’s Youth Steering Committee to assist and motivate multicultural leaders to address youth issues, liaising with State politicians to advocate for migrant and refugee communities.

With school students and community leaders alike, Fablice uses art to deliver messages of resilience and hope, particularly at a time when young CALD people are experiencing unprecedented levels of discrimination as race politics ascends in the media and in our public discourse. His aim is to demonstrate the capabilities of young people to contribute to community strengthening through creative pursuits.

Full bio and headshot.

Helen Garner – Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature

Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most cherished writers. She is known and admired for her fearless honesty in both her fiction and non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction. Her novels include Monkey Grip, The Children’s Bach, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Spare Room.

Monkey Grip became the Australian realist novel for a generation. As Bernadette Brennan writes in her biography A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work, the publication of Monkey Grip was a watershed moment for our culture, charting “the complex female experiences of motherhood, sexuality and desire, within the changing social contexts of the seventies, and … explod[ing] notions of literary decorum”.

In her five non-fiction books, stories and numerous pieces of journalism, almost all touch on the darkness found in Australian suburbia. Her non-fiction is crafted with a novelist’s deft skill for character complexity, scene-setting and emotional depth.

Garner is much loved by Australian readers, writers and festival audiences. Her work, spanning more than four decades, has helped Australia define its identity and has created a genre all of its own.

Full bio and headshot.

Susan Norrie – Australia Council Visual Arts Award

Susan Norrie was born 1953 and lives and works in Sydney. While initially known for her painting and installation, she has become increasingly renowned within Australia and internationally for her work in film, although her engagement with both painting and the moving image continues to influence each and intersect across her practice. Susan Norrie represented Australia at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. In 2016 she was commissioned by the Australian War Memorial Museum, Canberra to create a major video/film project which will be completed in 2019.

Full bio and headshot.

Vicki Van Hout – Australia Council Award for Dance

Vicki Van Hout is an Indigenous independent artist with over 20 years’ experience. A graduate of NAISDA Dance College and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York, she went on to perform with major Indigenous dance companies, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, before joining forces with Marilyn Miller as a founding member of Fresh Dancers. With Marilyn, Vicki performed Dear Carrie for One extra Dance and Quinkin for the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Her show Briwyant was the first ever show by an independent Indigenous choreographer to tour nationally and was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for Best Achievement in Independent Dance.

Vicki was awarded the 2014 NSW Dance Fellowship for established and mid-career artists – the first Indigenous winner of the Fellowship. She has also completed various residencies in Australia and overseas, including in Austria and Singapore.

Full bio and headshot.