Trash to treasure: road signs artwork wins top gong
The Yolŋu artist, from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory's northeast Arnhem Land, earned the $100,000 Telstra Art Award for her towering etched metal work titled Burwu, blossom 2025.
She is the eldest daughter of renowned artist Wukun Wanambi, helping his work on renditions of thousands of tiny fish from 2003 before his sudden death in 2022.
"This is what my father taught me to paint," the emerging artist said before claiming the top prize at Darwin's Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory on Friday.
"I began to paint the honey from the freshwater country.
"I showed those designs to him ... that is when he told me: 'Great! You will now take this design as your own and you will paint this when I am no more.'"
The jewel-like panels tell the story of Wuyal, an ancestor who founded the Marrakulu clan homeland at Gurka'wuy by felling a Wanambi tree causing a river of honey.
Almost three metres high and wide, the artwork is composed of recycled road signs etched and spray painted to shimmer on one side and retain driver warnings on the other.
The judges said the work presented "two worlds with two sides".
Bark is the canvass for most of Wanambi's art, with the sourcing of old and rusty road signs requiring trips "out bush".
"We go out on the Arnhem Highway or just in the town looking for one of these," the artist's sister Dhukumul told reporters.
"When we find them we go back home and make it smooth, spray it with some spray paint that's black and then we do honey bees and the flowers of the stringybark tree.
"It can take up to three, four days to finish."
The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards have launched the careers of some of Australia's most significant Aboriginal artists.
There were 71 finalists among the 2025 crop, with 42 created by women.
Gallery curator Kate ten Buuren said Wanambi, whose work is also held in collections at Canberra's Parliament House and Sydney's Powerhouse museum, had the world ahead of her.
In keeping with Wanambi's design, Ms ten Buuren said collaboration across generations was a recurring theme of the 2025 collective works.
"It really reflects that we're the oldest living culture in the world and our stories and knowledge have been passed down through those generations," the Taungurung artist and curator told AAP.
The $15,000 multimedia award went to Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis, a young artist descended from the Pitta Pitta people in northwest Queensland.
The Monash University lecturer's winning works use Google's digital photography to challenge its cartographical authority.
The two images were born out of her being unable to travel to Pitta Pitta land in 2020 and are part of a larger project called (Dis)connected to Country that she started in 2019.
"This project is a lifelong project," the 26-year-old told AAP.
The award's finalists are on show at the gallery until January 26, 2026.
FULL LIST OF 2025 NATSIAA AWARD WINNERS:
Telstra Art Award ($100,000) - Gaypalani Wanambi for Burwu, blossom 2025
General Painting Award ($15,000) - Iluwanti Ken for Walawuru Tjurkpa (Eagle story) 2025
Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award ($15,000) - Owen Yalandja for Ngalkodjek Yawkyawk 2025
Bark Painting Award ($15,000) - Lucy Yarawanga for Bawáliba & Ngalyod 2024
Work on Paper Award ($15,000) - Naomi Hobson for Present & Beyond 2024
Multimedia Award ($15,000) - Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis for Pitta Pitta (Extracted) and Pitta Pitta (Google's Gaze) 2025
Emerging Artist Award ($15,000) - Sonia Gurrpulan Guyula for Mat 2025
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