On August 8, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory announced Yolŋu artist Gaypalani Waṉambi as the winner of its annual AUD 100,000 (USD 65,000) Telstra Art Award—Australia’s most prestigious accolade for First Nations creatives—which was presented at the 42nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAAs) in Darwin.

The Yirrkala-based artist Waṉambi received the top prize for her large-scale metalwork Burwu, blossom (2025). Comprising a three-by-three meter panel of discarded road signs, the winning piece features etchings of thousands of stringybark blossoms and bees on the back. The intricate patterns delineate an Indigenous songline about Wuyal, a honey hunter and ancestor of the Marrakulu clan. 

The daughter of renowned artist Wukun Waṉambi—who clinched the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award at the NATSIAAs in 2010 and 2018, respectively—Gaypalani Waṉambi grew up assisting her father in his studio, learning how to paint through his guidance. 

In a video statement shown at the award ceremony, Waṉambi paid tribute to her late father. “Honey is what I’m working on,” she said, speaking in Yolŋu Matha. “This is what my father taught me to paint. Originally, we worked on the designs of our clan’s saltwater Country. . . . After that, I began to paint the honey from the freshwater Country. I showed those designs to him; this is when he told me, ‘Great! You will take this design now as your own, and you will paint this when I am no more.’”

Waṉambi is one of seven winners at this year’s NATSIAAs, which included AUD 15,000 (USD 9,730) awards across other categories, such as general painting, work on paper, bark painting, multimedia, and more.

Celine Fong is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.