The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually by the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: creative prose,

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, the

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

, script-writing (

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

or for theatre) and

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. The award is sponsored by Professor Emeritius Bernard Smith, art and cultural historian, in honour his late wife, Kate Challis, who was earlier known as Ruth Adeney. "RAKA" is an acronym for "Ruth Adeney Koori Award". In the

Pintupi language Pintupi () is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language (WDL). Pintupi is a variety of the Western Desert Language spoken b ...

, "raka" means "five", and in Warlpiri, "rdaka" means "hand". It has been awarded since 1991.

Past winners

Past winners include: *Natalie Harkin for the poetry collection '' Archival-Poetics'', 2020 * Steven McGregor and David Tranter for the screenplay of '' Sweet Country'', 2017 *

Yhonnie Scarce Yhonnie Scarce is an Australian glass artist whose work is held in major Australian galleries. She is a descendant of the Kokatha and Nukunu people of South Australia, and her art is informed by the effects of colonisation on Indigenous Austra ...

for her artwork of

blown glass Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...

, ''Remember Royalty'', 2018 *

Alexis Wright Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian writer. She is best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria''. She was the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "colle ...

for her novel ''

The Swan Book ''The Swan Book'' is the third novel by the Indigenous Australian author Alexis Wright. It met with critical acclaim when it was published in 2013, and was shortlisted for Australia's premier literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award. Premise ''Th ...

'' (2016) *

Ivan Sen Ivan Sen (born 1972) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. He is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as an editor, composer, and sound designer. He is co-founder and director of Bunya Productions, and known for the 2013 film ...

for the film script for ''

Toomelah Toomelah (formerly Toomelah Aboriginal Mission or Toomelah Station) is an Aboriginal Australian community in the far north of inland New South Wales, Australia. Location and governance Toomelah is located north of Moree on the MacIntyre Rive ...

'', 2011 *

Vivienne Cleven Vivienne Cleven (born 1968) is an Indigenous Australian fiction author of the Kamilaroi people. Her writing includes the novels ''Bitin' Back'' and ''Her Sister's Eye''. Early life and education Born in 1968 in Surat, Queensland, Vivienne Clev ...

, jointly awarded for creative prose in two novels: ''Bitin’ Back'' (2001) and ''Her Sister’s Eye'' (2002) *

Dallas Winmar Dallas Winmar is a Western Australian writer who first worked with Company B in 2001 on the staging of her play ''Aliwa!''. This play was first showcased in Perth by Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre and developed at the Australian National Playw ...

, playwright, both in 2002 for her play ''

Aliwa! ''Aliwa!'' is a play by Indigenous Australian playwright Dallas Winmar, and published by Currency Press in 2002. Plot Based on a true story of a mother who tries to keep her three daughters from being taken away by officials after the death o ...

'' and in 2008 for ''Yibiyung'' *

Mabel Juli __NOTOC__ Mabel Juli (born 1931) is a contemporary artist from the East Kimberley in Western Australia. Early life Juli was born in 1931 or 1932 at Five Mile, near Moola Boola Station. Her traditional name is Wiringoon and her traditional co ...

, Visual Arts, for her painting ''Under The Sun'' in 2013 *

Mudrooroo Colin Thomas Johnson (21 August 1938 – 2019), better known by his nom de plume Mudrooroo, and also published under the names Mudrooroo Narogin and Mudrooroo Nyoongah, was an Australian novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He is best known ...

, for creative prose, ''Us Mob'', in 1996 * Kevin Gilbert for his collection of poetry ''Black from the Edge'', 1995

References

{{reflist Arts awards in Australia Awards established in 1991