2026 Telstra Art Award as NATSIAA Winners Announced

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) has announced the winners of the 2026 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), with Dr Ryan Presley taking the top honour — the $100,000 Telstra Art Award — for his oil painting Our lifestyle of tranquillity undisturbed.

Born in Mparntwe/Alice Springs in 1987 and now based on Yugambeh Country in south-east Queensland, Presley is a Marri Ngarr artist whose practice spans painting, printmaking, sculpture, video and writing, marked by a sustained engagement with the visual economies of power, memory and resistance. His winning work recomposes the Western canon — the Renaissance in particular — into a dreamscape of the present, drawing on Domenico Beccafumi’s The Annunciation (c. 1545–1546) and mediating, in the artist’s words, “the Orwellian slogan: ‘Who controls the past controls the future.'” The judging panel — Julie Gough, Yhonnie Scarce and Warraba Weatherall — described the painting as “a standout in terms of successfully drawing together diverse cultural, cross-cultural and art history references to successfully hold a viewer in affective contemplation.”

MAGNT Director Adam Worrall said he was “captivated by Ryan’s monumental painting… executed with such technical precision,” adding that this year’s field was exceptional in both quality and diversity.

The 2026 awards mark two milestones: 35 years of Telstra’s sponsorship of NATSIAA, and 40 years of the Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award.

Across the six category awards, each worth $15,000, the Telstra General Painting Award went to Vanessa Inkamala, a Western Aranda artist based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, for Arrkurla Nukala / Lyaarta Ntema — a work painted onto a recycled road sign that maps how Tjoritja / the West MacDonnell Ranges has changed across her lifetime. The judges praised its “compellingly multi-layered journey across time and Country.”

The Telstra Bark Painting Award was awarded to Barayuwa Munuŋgurr, of Rurraŋala, for The hidden reef at Yarrinya, an earth-pigment work on stringybark that conceals within its design the sacred story of a whale, greed and the discipline of kinship. The judges commended a “powerful piece [that] deftly both conceals and reveals the cultural narrative at its centre.”

Jenna Mayilema Lee — a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri woman based in Naarm/Melbourne — received the Telstra Work on Paper Award for Taking back taken, six danala (dillybags) made from maps taken from the British Museum and carried back to Australia. The judges called it “a work of quiet beauty… [that] dexterously manifests the loss and ongoing impact of museums and collecting practices.”

The Wandjuk Marika Memorial 3D Award went to Napuwarri Marawili, of Yilpara, for Djambatj – Deadly hunter, a carved depiction of Gany’tjurr, the Reef Heron totem of the Maḏarrpa clan. The judges said Marawili “knows them so well as to carve their combined characteristics, Ancestor and bird, into remarkably beautiful and convincing transformative beings.”

The Telstra Emerging Artist Award was awarded to Guruwuy Murrinyina, of the remote homeland of Gäŋgan, for Prismatic arc, a stringybark hollow pole painted with the Galpu clan design of Djari (rainbows) and Wititj, the Rainbow Serpent. Daughter of the late artist Malaluba Gumana, Murrinyina began painting in her own right only in 2022; the judges noted her “deep assuredness and sensitivity to the mediums and the story depicted.”

Finally, the Telstra Multimedia Award went to Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri, a Tiwi artist and cultural leader from Milikapiti on Melville Island, for Ngirramini Ngini Amparruwu (The story of the widow), a single-channel video pairing a chant created by his mother with the widow dance, staged with carved ironwood objects. The judges highlighted “the potential of community created video works to record traditional practices… strengthen[ing] cultural continuity.”

Highly commended works were also recognised across several categories, including Wulu Marawili (General Painting), Robert Namarnyilk (Work on Paper) and Kevin ‘Sooty’ Welsh (3D Award).

Telstra Group Executive Lyndall Stoyles said the awards remain “one of the country’s most important celebrations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture,” while the overall judging panel noted that “the strongest works demonstrate critical artistry grounded in cultural integrity… cultural authority, intellectual rigour and a deep commitment to the responsibilities shared within our contemporary cultural practices.”

The 2026 Telstra NATSIAA exhibition is on show at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Garramilla/Darwin, until 24 January 2027.