Aboriginal culture, heritage, and arts front and centre in this year’s IMAGinE Awards Nominations
23-10-2025
Aboriginal arts and culture have a distinct presence in this year’s Museums and Galleries of NSW’s IMAGinE Awards with more than 25 nominations for exhibitions and programs that highlight First Nations voices and stories.
Among these, all three of the nominations under the Major Museums/Heritage & Galleries/Visual Arts category are for First Nations exhibitions: Museums of History NSW’s Seeing Sydney, Knowing Country, and State Library of NSW’s The Country Cries for Truth: Dr Bronwyn Bancroft and the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s Mungari: Fishing, Resistance, Return. These exhibitions speak to the strength and resilience of our communities through ongoing impacts of colonisation on our culture, people, and Country. Through impactful truth-telling, each puts the resistance of community on a cultural institutional stage.
It’s not just large cultural institutions that were recognised for embracing these narratives. Community-run and regional museums, galleries, and Aboriginal cultural centres across the state have also been recognised amongst these nominees for their outstanding work in elevating First Nations perspectives.
Included in these nominations are those in the running for ACHAA’s own annual award, recognising Excellence by a NSW Aboriginal Curator. With this award, ACHAA is building a legacy of celebrating Aboriginal curators focused on telling our own stories, sharing our own joy, pain, history, and knowledge. This year is no exception, with the nominees being: Kat Kitch (Wiradjuri) with MOB from Albury Library Museum, Len Waters (Kamilaroi) with Trailblazers of First Nations Country Music from Australian Country Music Hall of Fame, Jonathan Jones (Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi) with Dhuluny: the war that never ended from Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country from Bundanon, and Marika Duczynski (Gamilaraay and Mandandanji) with Mungari: Fishing, Resistance, Return from Chau Chak Wing Museum.
This year’s award nominations highlight that as more organisations work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal communities, a richer arts and cultural landscape and dialogue results, one that reflects true history and diverse voices across the many nations in New South Wales.
