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Namatjira, 37, was awarded this year's
A$100,000 ($70,620) Archibald Prize for his painting of
Indigenous footballer Adam Goodes in a work he titled "Stand
strong for who you are", the Art Gallery of New South Wales
said.
Goodes, a standout player for the Australian Football League
(AFL) for nearly two decades, left the sport and his Sydney
Swans club in 2015 after constant booing by crowds that league
management was slow to call out as racist, and for which it and
its 18 clubs apologised last year.
A documentary called the "The Final Quarter" was made about
Adam’s final season in the AFL, which Namatjira said had deeply
moved him.
"My guts were churning as I relived Adam’s experiences of
relentless racism on and off the field," Namatjira, who is a
member of the Western Arrernte community from central Australia,
said in a statement.
"We share some similar stories and experiences – of
disconnection from culture, language and Country, and the
constant pressures of being an Aboriginal man in this country,"
he said.
Australia has seen a renewed focus on Indigenous empowerment
following the global Black Lives Matter movement and the
destruction of sacred Aboriginal rockshelters by miner Rio Tinto.
Aboriginal Australians have shorter life spans and higher rates
of imprisonment than other citizens.
Namatjira, whose work is in collections around the world,
including the British Museum, is the great-grandson of the
watercolour artist Albert Namatjira, whose landscapes made him
among the most prominent painters of his generation.
The win follows that of Meyne Wyatt, also an Indigenous artist,
for the A$1,500 packing-room prize, chosen by gallery staff who
take, unpack and hang the Archibald entries, and comes as the
judging panel for the first time included an Indigenous member.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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