In 2024, M&G NSW’s IMAGinE Awards acknowledged both Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to and for Excellence by a NSW Aboriginal Curator

The ACHAA Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to NSW Aboriginal Culture, Heritage and Arts

Donna Biles Fernando

A proud Muruwari and Ngemba woman from Brewarrina, Donna’s tireless advocacy and pioneering work as a curator and arts worker transformed the relationships between Aboriginal communities and cultural institutions. Her instrumental role in developing the Terri Janke and Company’s First Peoples: A Roadmap for Enhancing Indigenous Engagement in Museums and Galleries that was added to the National Standards for Australian Museums and Galleries 2.0 helped shape the institutional landscape, enhancing First Nations practices in the arts and heritage sectors.

Donna curated several landmark exhibitions such as yapang marruma: making our way (2009), Lore & Order (2015-16), and The Lock-Ups’ miyarnuwimanha: NICOLE MONKS (2020), all of which provided a platform for Aboriginal people to express their stories and truths.

Among her many accomplishments, Donna worked with the Aboriginal Reference Group at the then Lake Macquarie Art Gallery to develop a First Nations framework aimed at ensuring ongoing consultation and governance processes. This framework, known as yapang (meaning “journey” or “pathway” in the Awabakal language), was so impactful that when the gallery later rebranded, it adopted the name MAC – Museum of Art and Culture, yapang, a name that reflects its commitment to the continued inclusion of Aboriginal voices and perspectives.

Donna’s commitment to empowering Aboriginal artists and cultural centres continued when she was commissioned by ACHAA and Museums and Galleries NSW to work on an exhibition that will bring together significant Aboriginal artists and cultural centres across the ACHAA member network. During development, Donna was able to meet with and connect with many of our members and associated artists and helped empower them in their own works and collections. This exhibition is intended to tour and be developed further, a final yapang in her memory.

The 2024 ACHAA award for Excellence by an Aboriginal Curator

MEAGAN GERRARD
Gamillaraay and Wailwan
Secrets of Dawn
Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation

As project and communications manager of the Coota Girls Aboriginal Corporation and descendant of Coota Girls Survivor Aunty Lorraine Darcy Peeters, Meagan’s work provided a platform for the stories of the Coota Girls—former residents of the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls. Through a collaboration with Coota Girls survivors and descendants, Meagan used the lens of the Dawn magazine, a paternalistic propaganda tool of the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board, to tell the truth of the intergenerational trauma caused by forcible removal and assimilation policies. 

Secrets of Dawn blended contemporary personal narratives and artworks with historical content, creating a moving and thought-provoking experience that offered profound insights into the healing journey of the Coota Girls and their families. Meagan’s dedication to truth-telling and cultural resilience has helped preserve and amplify the voices of Aboriginal women and families affected by Australia’s history of colonisation. 

Highly Commended Award

ALEISHA LONSDALE
Wiradjuri
Guwayu: for all time
Mudgee Arts Precinct 

This poignant exhibition explored the parallel experiences of Aboriginal people living with the impact of dispossession, extermination and assimilation, and honoured the resistance of the broader First Nations peoples through activism and cultural practice.

Other 2024 Nominees

Dr Mariko Smith, Yuin, Her Name is Nanny Nellie, Australian Museum
Keith Munro, Gamilaraay, Esme Timbery and Family Artist Room, Museum of Contemporary Art
Kyra Kum-Sing, Malera Bandjalan, Celebrating 50 Years of the Aboriginal Housing Company, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative/Mangejup Arts and Cultural Centre