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Gaypalani Waṉambi wins the Telstra Art Award at the 2025 Telstra NATSIAA

The Yirrkala artist won the $100,000 award for a monumental etched metal work, now showing at MAGNT in Darwin.

8 Aug 2025 18:00

Richard Watts

The 2025 Telstra Art Award winner, Gaypalani Waṉambi, 'Burwu, blossom', 2025, at the 2025 Telstra NATSIAA. The front of the artwork, showing the intricately etched and painted honey bees and stringybark blossoms are shown; the second part of the photograph shows the found road signs which comprise the canvas for the work.

Visual Arts

The 2025 Telstra Art Award winner, Gaypalani Waṉambi, ‘Burwu, blossom’, 2025, at the 2025 Telstra NATSIAA. The front and back of the artwork are shown. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Georgina Campbell.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the name of a person who has died.

Gaypalani Waṉambi from Yirrkala in Arnhem Land, and her monumental work Burwu, blossom (2025), is the winner of this year’s $100,000 Telstra Art Award.

The news was announced this evening (Friday 8 August) on Larrikia Country at Darwin’s Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts