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First Nations Established Artist of the Year Award

Recognising excellence in artistic practice and outstanding achievement in the arts for an established artist with ten or more years of continued artistic practice.

First Nations Arts and Culture Awards 2024 trophies. Photo: Maja Baska

First Nations Established Artist of the Year Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts

We are excited to invite nominations for the newly created 2025 Artist of the Year Award. This Award recognises excellence in Australian First Nations artistic practice and outstanding achievement in the arts for an established artist with more than ten years of continued artistic practice.

This opportunity is available to artists practicing in community arts and cultural development, dance, experimental arts, literature, multi-arts, music, theatre and/or visual arts.

This initiative is part of Creative Australia’s First Nations First industry development programs. The programs have been developed in response to extensive community consultation on priorities and needs of the sector in response to Pillar 1, First Nations First – Revive, the Australian Government’s shared vision for Australia: a place for every story and a story for every place. These new initiatives aim to elevate existing programs and deliver new funding that build on a 50-year legacy of First Nations leadership and investment at Creative Australia.

One award valued at $25,000 will be offered to one recipient.

We seek nominations from arts and community organisations and individuals.

The recipient will be presented with the award at the First Nations Arts & Culture Awards ceremony to be held on Tuesday 27 May 2025.

About the First Nations Arts and Culture Awards

The First Nations Arts and Culture Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding work and achievements of First Nations artists, practice, cultural advocacy and leadership. The Awards are held on the evening of Tuesday 27 May 2025, which coincides with the commencement of Reconciliation Week. The following awards will be presented:

Who can’t be nominated

You are ineligible for this award if:

  • you are under 18 years of age
  • you do not identify as Australian First Nations
  • you’re based outside of Australia
  • you have an overdue grant report for Creative Australia
  • you owe money to Creative Australia.

Please note: we do not accept self nominations across all categories.

Applications will be assessed against two criteria.

Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what the Peer Assessors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed.

1. Merit

  • contribution to Australian First Nations arts and cultural expression
  • demonstrated artistic achievement within the area of practice
  • outstanding body of work
  • depth in area/s of practice
  • continued artistic practice maintained over ten years or more.

2. Impact

  • substantial contribution to the development of First Nations arts
  • evidence that the Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts have been adhered to, including consultation and engagement with First Nations elders, collaborators and communities
  • excellence and leadership in arts and culture
  • industry and peer recognition and acknowledgment
  • contribution to diverse cultural expression.

You must submit a CV/extended bio for the nominee (approx. 2 x A4 pages, or a link to a CV/bio on the nominee’s website).

You may submit up to four letters or statements of support (approx. 2 x A4 pages, or up to 5 minutes of audio/video).

Types of support material we accept
  • our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks)
  • you can provide up to two URLs that link to content that is relevant to your nomination.
Please note:
  • do not supply any URLs that require users to log in or sign up to a platform.
  • do not provide links to applications that require users to log in or pay for access.
If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected, please provide the password in the password field on the nomination form.

Other accepted file formats

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your nomination in other formats, for example:

  • video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media)
  • audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
  • images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
  • written material (Word and PDF).
We do not accept support material submitted via post. Material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact Artists Services.
To nominate, log in to our Application Management System. You must register an account if you do not already have one. It may take up to two business days for us to process your registration. Once you have logged in:
1. Select ‘Submit a Nomination’ from the left panel menu
2. Under ‘Awards’ select ‘Start a new award nomination’
3. Ensure you select the correct award from the list of options
4. Complete the fields and select answers using the dropdown menus
5. Upload any necessary support material
6. Select ‘Save’ once complete
7. If you are not ready to submit your nomination you can return to it through ‘Your Draft Applications’ in the left panel menu
8. When you are ready to submit your nomination, select ‘Submit’.

Key dates

Amount: One award of $25,000

Applications closed

Notifications: February 2025

The First Nations Arts & Culture Awards are on Tuesday 27 May 2025.

Please note: To nominate you must be registered in our application management system a minimum of two business days prior to the closing date.

Contact

To discuss your application, please contact:

Tahjee Moar
Project Manager
First Nations Arts and Culture
Phone: +61 2 9215 9095
Email: Tahjee.Moar@creative.gov.au

 

If you need help with your nomination, please call or email us.

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