Noli Rictor wins the $100,000 Telstra Art Award

ArtsHub takes a look at the 2024 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award winners.
Aboriginal artist with abstract painting in red colours. NATSIAA

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following article contains references to deceased persons.

This year’s winner, Noli Rictor, has been described as ‘possibly the youngest “first contact” Aboriginal person in Australia’. At 21, Rictor transitioned from an isolated life in the desert, where he had survived with only his immediate family, to the settlement of Yakadunya, joining other Spinifex people who had relocated due to British nuclear testing at Maralinga. He then started painting.

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina