Home

Kununurra’s Louise Malarvie top emerging artist at National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award

Liz HobdayAAP
Aboriginal artist Louise Marlarvie has been selected as a finalist in Telstra's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, alongside three other women from the Kimberley.
Camera IconAboriginal artist Louise Marlarvie has been selected as a finalist in Telstra's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, alongside three other women from the Kimberley. Credit: Supplied/RegionalHUB

Kununurra artist Louise Malarvie has been named the top emerging artist at the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards for her work depicting the effects of rain and floodwaters on the Great Sandy Desert.

The NATSIA awards, the longest running and richest Indigenous art prizes in Australia, were awarded in Darwin on Friday night, with the winning artists from all over Australia.

Louise Malarvie, from Kununurra in WA, won the Emerging Artist Award with a large painting in earth pigments on canvas, suggesting the effects of rain and floodwaters on the Great Sandy Desert.

Ms Malarvie said it was amazing to win.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

“I think about it all the time and I can’t believe I did it with my hands, it came from me, inside of me,” she said.

Pamarr Yara 2022 was painted with pigments from her mother’s and father’s country, and based on the stories of her ancestors.

The prestigious $100,000 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award — the top gong on the night — went to weaver Margaret Rarru Garrawurra from LaNgarra in NT’s Arnhem Land.

The winning work is a sail almost three metres high, intricately woven from yellow and brown dyed pandanus leaves and titled Dhomala (pandanus sail).

Speaking through an interpreter, the senior YolNGu artist said her father learnt to make woven sails from Makassans and she would watch him weaving them too.

“I was with my sisters when I found out about winning, we were very happy, it makes us proud to get first prize,” she said.

The sail is also a symbol of the historic relationships between the YolNGu people and the people of Makassar, now Indonesia, which precede European colonisation.

Curator Rebekah Raymond told AAP the work exemplifies the technical skill of the master weaver.

“It is a work that just shows a senior artist at their best and highest level,” she said.

The NATSIAAs runs August 6 to January 15 at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails