When 82-year-old artist Jukuja Dolly Snell travelled to Darwin from Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia, she thought she was seeing her artwork Kurtal for the last time.
She had no idea it was the overall winner of the $50,000 prize for the 2015 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.
"She thought the museum bought it, she didn't know she won first prize," her great-granddaughter Lynley Nargoodah told reporters.
She said every painting Ms Snell had created over the years had been of the same country, Kurtal, where her family was from, and the winning work was made in three weeks after she flew over the landscape in a helicopter.
"The way it's painted, its use of washes and various colours and brushwork over the colours to give a depth to the painting, a sense of translucency and luminosity, I think that's what we really responded to," said judge Cara Pinchbeck, curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of NSW.
In its 32nd year, the award is the first and longest-running celebration of indigenous Australian art and this year almost 300 entries were whittled down to 65 finalists.
"What you see in this exhibition is really a snapshot of what's happening across the country today - indigenous culture is dynamic and changing and it is innovative," Ms Pinchbeck said.
"The Australian public doesn't necessarily appreciate the diversity of indigenous culture and having an exhibition like this really highlights how different the works across the country are."
The winner of the youth award, in its second year, was 23-year-old Joshua Muir from Ballarat in Victoria with Buninyong, a graphic work printed on aluminium and telling the long history of a neighbouring Aboriginal community.
The work is packed with historical references, from the clashes with European settlers and the toll that the gold rush, alcohol and tobacco had on the residents, to the depletion of native foods.
Mr Muir used MS Paint to create his work and says that he has found a contemporary way of telling indigenous stories.
"We're progressing," he said. "I think Aboriginal art is becoming really intricate.
"There's all sorts of different mediums - it's not just visual arts, it's performing arts and it's music and that sort of stuff."
With digital programs and more means for experimentation, "we're picking it up and we're going to transform people's thinking and show that we're more diverse in what we do", Mr Muir said.
He said his bold, colourful graphic style of art spoke more to young people.
"It might be more captivating for people growing up in today's generation, so it's a great way to pass on stories in future," he said.
Betty Kuntiwa Pumani from the Mimili community in South Australia won the general painting prize for her work, titled Antara (Maku Dreaming).
"The intricacy of the mark making in this work is very commanding; Betty has a unique way of mapping out detail," the judges noted.
Rhonda Sharpe from Alice Springs won the 3D award for her work, Rhonda, and Nonggirrnga Marawili from Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land won the bark painting award for her work, entitled Lightning in the Rock.
Also from the Mimili community is Robert Fielding, who won the work on paper award for his dual self-portraits, entitled Mikali Kutju (One Blood).
One is a black-and-white portrait emblazoned with the words "YOU SEE BLACK" while its twin is washed in red, reading "I SEE RED".
"My work looks political, but it's not, it's about forgiveness, it's about peace, it's about love, it's about joy, it's about happiness," he said.
"We as indigenous and non-indigenous people have the same anatomy, the same two kidneys, the liver, the heart, the lungs, the capillaries.
"But we as people only look at what's on the surface, but what's below the surface, we are no different, we live and breathe the same."
* The 32nd NATSIAAs are on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin until November 1.
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