WINNER: 2025 Telstra Art Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), presented by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).

In August 2025, Gaypalani Wanambi was awarded the Telstra Art Award at the 2025 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) for her monumental etched-metal work Burwu, blossom. Taking home the highest honour bestowed by the most prestigious, longest-running awards program dedicated to Australian First Nations art – including the top prize of $100,000 – Wanambi’s work is now set to join the permanent collection of one of the country’s most important public institutions. “This is an exceptional work that visually and materially explores different relationships to and understandings of Country,” note the NATSIAA judges. “Each jewel-like panel shimmers with exquisitely rendered designs that are deeply anchored to Yolŋu philosophies. Despite its scale and composite parts, there is a visual cohesion to the work that has been ambitiously, intentionally and expertly assembled.”