BALINGUP artist Sandra Hill has won the People’s Choice Award of $5,000 in the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards 2015.
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Ms Hill said she was thrilled to win the award.
“To me this is the important one – it affirms my work is still resonating with people,” she said.
Ms Hill created works for the exhibition that explore Australia’s Indigenous history.
One of the works has a white picket fence surrounding a statue of an Aboriginal man with a flag at half mast. On the pickets are written government policies pertaining to Indigenous people.
Another work used native resins and natural materials to create a mosaiced flag juxtaposing everyday life in the 1950s and 60s for white people with the experience during the same era of Indigenous people.
Ms Hill said it was meaningful to her that even though the work confronted the past policies and the chasm between Aboriginal and European cultures in Australia, people still voted for it.
“It’s one of the most important awards I’ve ever got,” she said.
“It wasn’t just that they voted, but it was a majority vote. Knowing how much my work is appreciated, I will go on with it.”
Ms Hill said all of the work entered into the awards was stunning.
“They know nothing about me, they just know the work. For me to win that with the public was ultra important,” she said.
