The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually since 1991 by the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Indigenous Australian creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: creative prose, drama, the visual arts, script-writing (screenplay or for theatre) and poetry.
Professor Emeritus Bernard SmithArt and cultural historian established the award in honour of his late wife, Kate Challis, formerly known as Ruth Adeney. "RAKA" is an acronym for "Ruth Adeney Koori Award". In the Pintupi language, "raka" means "five", and in Warlpiri, "rdaka" means "hand".
It has been awarded since 1991.
Past winners Source: 1991: Bill Dodd for his novel Broken Dreams 1992: Jack Davis for his play No Sugar 1993: Lin Onus for his sculpture 1994: Tracey Moffat for her film beDevil 1995: Kevin Gilbert for his collection of poetry, Black from the Edge 1996: Mudrooroo for his novel Us Mob 1997: John Harding for his play Up the Road 1998: Brook Andrew for his photographic work, Sexy and Dangerous 1999: Rima Tamou for the film script Round Up 2000: Samuel Wagan Watson for his volume Night Song and Other Poems 2001: Kim Scott for his novel Benang: From the Heart 2002: Jane Harrison for her play Stolen and Dallas Winmar for her play Aliwa! 2003: Ricky Maynard for his photographic work Wik Elder, Arthur 2004: Ivan Sen for his film script Beneath the Clouds 2005: Mr Brown and Geytenbeek for their book Ngarla Songs 2006: Vivienne Cleven, jointly awarded for creative prose in two novels: Bitin’ Back (2001) and Her Sister’s Eye (2002) 2007: David Milroy for his play Windmill Baby 2008: Gali Yalkarriwuy for his work, Banumbirr (Morning Star Pole) 2009: Warwick Thornton for his screenplay Samson and Delilah 2010: Yvette Holt for her poetry collection Anonymous Premonition (2008) 2011: Kim Scott for his novel That Deadman Dance 2012: Dallas Winmar for her play Yibiyung 2013: Mabel Juli for the painting Garnkeny Ngarranggarni (2010) 2014: Ivan Sen for the film script for Toomelah (2011) 2015: Lionel Fogarty for his volume of poems Mogwie-idan: Stories of the Land (2012) 2016: Alexis Wright for her novel The Swan Book (2013) 2017: Jub Clerc for the playThe Fever and The Fret 2018: Yhonnie Scarce for her artwork of blown glass, Remember Royalty 2019: Steven McGregor and David Tranter for the screenplay of Sweet Country 2020: Natalie Harkin for the poetry collection Archival-Poetics (2020) 2021: Tara June Winch for her novel The Yield 2022: Dylan Van Den Berg for his play Milk 2023: Brian Robinson for his painting Uncharted: Astrolabe and Zelee in Kulkalgal country 2024: Ivan Sen for his script for his feature film Limbo 2025: Jazz Money for poetry mark the dawn
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