Creative Australia has announced the recipients of the 2026 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards.

Presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on 27 May, the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum and the beginning of National Reconciliation Week, this year’s ceremony also revealed the establishment of a new award category dedicated to the memory of Rhoda Roberts.  To be presented for the first time in 2027, the Rhoda Roberts Trailblazer Award will celebrate an individual who has had an outstanding impact on First Nations arts and culture.

The 2026 First Nations Arts and Culture Award Winners: John Harvey, Letisha Ackland, Maurial Spearim, Dr Bronwyn Bancroft, Stephen Pigram, Hayley Millar Baker, Hetti Kemarre Perkins, Dr Djambawa Marawili. Photo © Stephen Wilson Barker

The Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Artistic Excellence has been awarded to Dr Bronwyn Bancroft and Stephen Pigram.

Brownyn Bancroft is a Bundjalung artist and activist. She was one of the first three Indigenous fashion designers to have been shown in Paris, and her works are displayed in international and national institutions including the National Gallery of Australia and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. As an illustrator for Aboriginal children’s literature, she has worked on more than 50 books and was a founding member of the Leichhardt-based Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative.

Stephen Pigram is a musician and songwriter of the Yaawuru people who has performed with the groups Kuckles, Scrap Metal and the Pigram Brothers. He co-composed the score for the film Mad Bastards with his brother Alan Pigram and Alex Lloyd, which was nominated for an ARIA Award. He released his solo debut album, Wanderer, in 2013 and has performed his own works alongside the Australian String Quartet.

The recipients of the Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Advocacy and Leadership are Djambawa Marawili and Hetti Kemarre Perkins.

Djambawa Marawili is an painter, sculptor, printmaker and ceremonial leader of the Madarrpa clan. He has twice been awarded the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. He was also a key organiser of the landmark 2008 Blue Mud Bay case, which led to the recognition of Yolŋu sea rights.

Hetti Kemerre Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon art curator and writer who was senior curator for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1998–2011. She has helped to deliver major international and national exhibitions, including at the 1997 Venice Biennale and the 2010 show art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, and she is Resident Curator at Bangarra Dance Theatre, where she has worked as Artist-in-Residence.

The Youth Award for Achievement in the Arts was awarded to Hayley Millar Baker. Baker is a Gunditjmara, Djabwurrung and Anglo-Indian artist based in Melbourne, who was shortlisted for the Australian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Her work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and internationally at the Nasher Museum of Art and Al Hamriyah Studios.

John Harvey has been awarded the Established Artist of the Year Award. He is an established director, producer and writer whose output includes feature and short films, installation art and plays. Harvey has written the works Heart is a Wasteland,  Black Ties and The Return, and he is currently commissioned to co-write a new work for Queensland Theatre Company, Mudskipper.

The First Nations Arts and Culture Business Innovation Award winner is Balya Productions, an organisation that generates industry connections and opportunities for First Nations artists and creatives working within the performing arts.

More about the First Nations Arts and Culture Awards can be found here.