Aboriginal Culture, Heritage
& Arts Association of NSW

At the 2025 IMAGinE Awards presented by Museums and Galleries of NSW, ACHAA’s two awards acknowledged the dedication of both a language custodian and a contemporary curator to the work of cultural reclamation. 

Gary Williams recognised for lifetime contribution to Aboriginal culture 

This year’s ACHAA Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to NSW Aboriginal Culture, Heritage and Arts was awarded to Gary Williams. Gary is a Gumbaynggirr/Bundjalung man whose lifelong work has helped to revive and sustain multiple coastal NSW languages through his leadership at Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative.  

A Nambucca Heads local, Gary grew up immersed in his mother’s country, guided by Elders including Tiger Buchanan and Uncle Charles Moran. In 1965, he joined his University of Sydney classmate, Charles Perkins, in organising the Student Action for Aborigines group, which led to the Freedom Ride across NSW. The pair were the only two Aboriginal students at the university at that time. A call home where he was needed meant he wasn’t on the Freedom Ride bus. He made history all the same by sitting down in a a racially segregated pub bar in Bowraville with a non-Indigenous fellow member of the Student Action for Aborigines, Brian Aarons when the Freedom Ride bus came to town. 

It was the start of many years for Gary spent rallying against racial discrimination, lobbying at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, campaigning during the 1967 referendum, and becoming a founding member of the Aboriginal Legal Service. 

Gary returned home to Nambucca Heads in 1990, and in 1997, he attended the first Gumbaynggirr language classes. Language reclamation has been his passion since then. When Muurrbay expanded into a Regional Language Centre in 2004, he became a regional language researcher, using his cultural knowledge and linguistics skills to research the Gumbaynggirr language as well as Bundjalung, his father’s language. Gary’s research alongside Elders and peers led to valuable records of Gumbaynggirr Elders being unearthed. He has become a pillar of Muurrbay’s support of NSW coastal languages, setting up language organisations, sometimes delivering their first classes, and supporting the creation of multiple language dictionaries. Gary’s work has supported the revival of seven languages. 

“Through all he has done, Gary has been present and committed, always ready to walk alongside his community,” ACHAA said in announcing the award.  

ACHAA Chairperson Jeanette Crew OAM described Gary as “an inspiring addition to those individuals and cultural organisations we have acknowledged each year with this special award,” noting that under his leadership, Muurrbay’s influence “extends far beyond those NSW coastal communities and will continue to do so for many generations.”  

Marika Duczynski honoured for excellence in community-led curation 

The ACHAA Award for Excellence by a NSW Aboriginal Curator was awarded to Marika Duczynski, Senior Curator of Indigenous Heritage at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, for her work on Mungari: Fishing, Resistance, Return: a powerful exhibition marking the return of four ancestral Gweagal spears taken from Gamay (Botany Bay) in 1770 and held in the UK for 254 years.  

Developed with the Gujaga Foundation, the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, and a curatorium of Gweagal descendants, Mungari was deeply community-driven. Under Marika’s direction, the exhibition drew on collaborative workshops, on-Country visits, and co-design with descendants, embedding Dharawal language, cultural protocols and cultural safety throughout.  

According to the all-Aboriginal judging panel, Mungari “exemplified best practice in community-led curation, foregrounding cultural authority and demonstrating how museums can respectfully support truth-telling.”  

“Mungari’s success shows how museums, when guided by First Nations curators and communities, can become spaces of healing, memory and sovereignty”, the judges said.  

The awards to both Gary Williams and Marika Duczynski highlight a broader commitment by the IMAGinE Awards and ACHAA to honour both long-term cultural custodianship and contemporary community-led excellence. 

The IMAGinE Awards are an initiative of Museums & Galleries of NSW, developed with support from the Australian Museums and Galleries Association NSW and Regional and Public Galleries of NSW, with this year’s edition made possible through support from International Conservation Services as the Major Sponsor of the Awards. This year, more than 25 nominations celebrated First Nations exhibitions and programs across NSW, and rom this list, nine winners emerged, including: 

• Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Dhuluny: the war that never ended 

• Grafton Regional Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre & Lismore Regional Gallery with Arts Northern Rivers Bulaan Buruugaa Ngali 

• Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery Blak Douglas: The Halfway Line 

• Port Macquarie Museum Barayal Bila 

• Pilot’s Cottage Museum Aboriginal history permanent displays 

• Newcastle Art Gallery MEGAN COPE: Ngumpi Kinyingarra Oyster House 

The recognition of both grassroots language work and institutional-curation signals a strengthening of First Nations voices at the core of the state’s cultural landscape. 

Click here to view the full list of 2025 IMAGinE Awards winners. 

As ACHAA works to further Aboriginal arts, heritage and culture, awards like these serve to honour and affirm that cultural connection is central to the ongoing wellbeing and community strength of current and future generations of Aboriginal people. 

Cover Photo: Marika Duczynski receives her award for Excellence by an Aboriginal Curator from Aunty Jeanette Crew OAM and Museums and Galleries Chairperson Kyle Tung. Photo by Garry Trinh.