'Art is central to our political power': 50 years of land rights celebrated in art award

Desert Mob art festival celebrates link between Aboriginal art and land rights In short: The biannual Vincent Lingiari Art Award is celebrating 50 years of land rights in the Northern Territory. Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney of Artists of Ampilatwatja has won the $10,000 art award for her painting My Grandmother's Country. What's next? The 35th Desert Mob continues in Alice Springs across the weekend. When Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney received the prestigious 2026 Vincent Lingiari Art Award, she was not there to accept it. She was sitting under the stars on her country a few hundred kilometres north-east of Alice Springs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images of people who have died, used with permission. "The land holds stories, and when we are there, we feel them," she said in a statement read on her behalf. Her winning painting, titled My grandmother's country, is layered and deep, featuring river systems, desert wildflowers, hills and valleys and gums — almost alive and moving. Ms Bonney, of Artists of Ampilatwatja, is a traditional healer and painter. Her mother, Eileen Bonney, fought for her country as part of the Wakaya-Alyawarre land claim for 40 years. "[It was] one of the longest-standing land claims in the Northern Territory, and now she is passing it over, so we can pass it over to our children," Ms Bonney said. "My mother had to fight because this was her mother's country." Intersection of art and land rights The theme of this year's Vincent Lingiari Art Award (VLAA), presented by the Central Land Council (CLC) and the peak for central Australian Aboriginal art centres, Desart, on Thursday night, is Our country, our culture: 50 years of land rights. In the room of finalists, the artworks are as diverse as the nine CLC regions they hail from, all across the central Australian desert. The exhibition features ceramics, soft sculpture, traditional topographical paintings of land, painted fuel caps and even a Kaytetye Ned Kelly who wears bright pink pants. CLC general manager Dr Josie Douglas said Aboriginal art remained integral to fighting for country and land rights. "The power of our art has always been central to our political power,"Dr Douglas said. "You can see that in the 1988 Barunga Statement and the artwork from that statement, which was danced up and presented to prime minister Bob Hawke. "You can also see it in 1993, ahead of the Mabo decision, when the former chairman of the CLC, Wenten Rubuntja presented prime minister Paul Keating with a painting titled Yeperenye Dreaming." Dr Douglas said her favourite painting in the collection was the Kaytetye Ned Kelly. It's a self-portrait by Ned Kelly, who continued to fight to keep his country safe, culminating in a High Court ruling last month to set aside the NT's largest groundwater extraction licence at Singleton Station. Warumungu and Luritja curator of the VLAA, Kelli Cole, said it was important to celebrate all Mr Lingiari had achieved. She said marking the 50th anniversary of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, through the exhibition, felt vital. "Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji man, led the Wave Hill Walk-Off in 1966; he and many others, and he had the struggle … he pursued equal rights and payment for working on country," Ms Cole said. "For me, it's so important to honour his legacy." Land council award Last month, more than 1000 people gathered in Kalkaringi for the Freedom Day Festival to mark the 60th anniversary of the Wave Hill Walk Off, led by Vincent Lingiari in 1966. Photographs of the VLAA finalists were taped to the side of council four-wheel-drives in a travelling bush exhibition so that CLC representatives at the celebrations could crown the winner of the CLC Delegates Choice Award. They chose Warumungu leader and translator Joseph Williams Jungarrayi's arresting piece 'Three Brothers'. Mr Williams said his piece, depicting three faces against an old mining map of the Tennant Creek area, was about reclamation. "Transforming a document that once marked extraction and disruption into one that carries culture, story and identity," he said. "Fifty years on from land rights, this work speaks to reclamation — of land, of narrative and of identity. "It honours the enduring presence of ancestors and recognises that our stories are still embedded in country, no matter how it has been mapped, divided or used." Desert Mob, now in its 35th year, continues across the weekend in Alice Springs with artist talks today, a marketplace and workshops on Saturday and satellite events at various art centres on Sunday.