Presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre, the 2023 Art Music Awards recognised 28 artists and groups were for their excellence in jazz, chamber music, musical education and more. Australian of the Year nominee and didgeridoo player William Barton received the night’s most prestigious prize, the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music, for his decades of work and promotion of First Nations music. He is the first Indigenous artist to receive the award.
‘My aim is to connect with you even if I don’t know you,’ said Barton. He dedicated the moment to his mother Aunty Delmae Barton, his didgeridoo teacher and uncle Arthur Peterson, geologist and early mentor Mick Roche, and his mob.
