Bundjalung woman and artist Dr Bronwyn Bancroft AM has received the Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement in Artistic Excellence.
With a career that spans over five decades, Dr Bancroft is a celebrated and highly acclaimed First Nations artist and illustrator.
Dr Bancroft is the youngest of seven children and the daughter of Bundjalung man, Bill Bancroft, and Dorothy Moss, who is of Polish and Scottish descent. She began creating from a young age and at 17 attended the Canberra School of Art.
Setting up her shop ‘Designer Aboriginals’ in Rozelle, Sydney in 1985 Dr Brancroft provided training for young Aboriginal women in all facets of business from selling to creating handmade jewellery, sewing and silk screening, and mentoring the principles of self-determination.
Bancroft was one of the first Australian designers to showcase her work in Paris in 1987 as part of the ‘Australis Down Under’ fashion show at the Printemps department store. She has written and illustrated over 50 children’s books, including illustrating for Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Sally Morgan as well as her own titles. Dr Bancroft was the recipient of the Lady Cutler Award in 2024 as well as being nominated for numerous prestigious international literature awards.
‘The award was the culmination of 50 years of artistic resilience and recognition for the work I have done across the arts sector in Australia, and in particular, the mentoring and advancement of First Nations Artists,’ Dr Brancroft told The Echo.
‘My career as a single mother and artist, illustrator, and academic has never been easy but this award was one of the highlights in my artistic career.’
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