Manning Clark House
National Cultural Awards 2011 Announced on 12 December.
Media Alert - EMBARGOED
TO 12 NOON, 12 DECEMBER 2011
Manning Clark House National Cultural Awards Announced
Event: Presentation of 2011 Manning Clark House National Cultural Awards
Where: Manning Clark House – 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest
When: 11am Monday 12 December, 2011
Manning Clark House will publicly announce the winners today of the 2011 MCH National Cultural Awards that recognise ‘outstanding contributions to the quality of Australian cultural life’ made between 1 November 2010 and 31 October 2011.
The winners are:
- Individual – Bill Gammage for The Biggest Estate On Earth - How Aborigines Made Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2011)
- Group / collective – ABC TV for the series The Slap.
Both will receive a prestigious glass award designed by Canberra artists Jenny Farrelly and Ngaio Fitzpatrick, at the presentation event.
President of Manning Clark House, Sebastian Clark, said that in determining the winners ‘culture’ was interpreted in the widest sense: “These awards are now an important and distinguished event on the Australian cultural calendar.”
The winners will join other high profile winners from previous years including Hugh Mackay, Mark McKenna, Ken Inglis, Peter Carey, Tania de Young, Gina Riley and Jane Turner, John Doyle, the National Museum of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive, Peter Sutton and the National Portrait Gallery.
This year saw all four local universities coming on board as sponsors for the first time as a group: Australian National University; University of Canberra; University of NSW Canberra campus; and Australian Catholic University.
Manning Clark House is a Canberra-based cultural and scholarly organisation based in the former home of Australia’s foremost historian Manning Clark, and his wife and partner Dymphna Clark.
WINNERS and OTHER CATEGORIES - FULL DETAILS:
Individual Category:
BILL GAMMAGE: The Biggest Estate on Earth - How Aborigines Made Australia (Allen & Unwin)
Short List: Individual
Mark McKenna: An Eye For Eternity (Melbourne Publishing)
Scott Bennett: Pozieres: The Anzac Story (Scribe Publications)
Alex Miller: Autumn Laing (Allen & Unwin)
Ron Brooks: Drawn from the Heart (Allen & Unwin)
Honourable Mentions: Individual
Betty Churcher: Notebooks (Melbourne Publishing)
John Bailey: Into the Unknown (Pan McMillan Australia)
Warren Bonett: The Australian Book of Atheism (Scribe Publications)
Peter Collett: Statuary of John Curtin and Ben Chifley
Karen Middleton: An Unwinnable War (Melbourne Publishing)
Heather Henderson: Letters to My Daughter (Murdoch Books)
Special Mentions: Individual
Chris Hammer: The River (Melbourne Publishing)
Martin Thomas: The Many Worlds of RH Mathews (Allen & Unwin)
Stephen Pike: Blood Brothers (Q Theatre Production)
Michael Le Grand (Sculptor)
Michael Veitch: The Forgotten Islands (Penguin Group)
WINNERS:
Group Category:
ABC TV for: The Slap
Short List: Group
Geoffrey Lehmann and Robert Gray: Australian Poetry since 1788 (New South Wales Publishing)
Roadshow Films: Red Dog (Film)
National Museum of Australia: Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route (Exhibition)
National Gallery of Australia: Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons (Exhibition)
Honourable Mentions: Group
National Gallery of Victoria: Vienna: Art and Design (Exhibition)
Yates Garden Guide, 43rd Edition (Harper Collins Publishers)
National Library of Australia: Treasures Gallery
Special Mention: Group
Nadia Wheatley: Playground (Allen & Unwin)
PREVIOUS WINNERS
Winners of the CACS Awards for an ‘An Outstanding Contribution to the Quality of Australian Cultural Life’ 1994 to 2004
1994 – The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia ed. David Horton
1995 – ‘Australia Remembers, 1945-95’ Project
1996 – two categories
Robyn Williams (individual category)
Freemantle Arts Centre Press (group category)
1997
Roland Manderson (individual category)
Bringing Them Home: The ‘Stolen Children’ Report (group category)
1998
Tania De Jong: Performing arts through Music Theatre Australia (individual category)
Australia Biography Series 6 – Film Australia (group category)
1999
K.S. Inglis Sacred Place: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape (individual category)
Company B Belvoir’s Cloudstreet tour (group category)
2000
Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (UQP) (individual category)
The World Upside Down, Australia 1788-1830, National Library of Australia (group category)
2001
Peter Mares, Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (UNSW Press) (individual category)
National Museum of Australia (group category)
2002
Mark McKenna, Looking for Blackfellas’ Point : an Australian History of Place (UNSW Press) (individual category)
Treasures from the World’s Greatest Libraries, National Library of Australia (group category)
2003
John Doyle – Roy and HG/Marking Time (individual category)
Australia’s Silent Cinema – Video Series, ScreenSound Australia (National Film and Sound Archive (group category)
2004
Hugh Mackay : Right or Wrong – How to Decide for Yourself (individual category)
Kath and Kim (ABC Television) – Gina Riley and Jane Turner (group category)
** The Awards consist of a presentation medallion, especially sculpted Gilbert Riedelbauch, and an additional prize of $200 to the winner in the individual category.
2005 – No Award
2006
Kate Crawford, Adult Themes: Rewriting the Rules of Adulthood (individual category)
The Australian Dictionary of Biography On Line (group category)
2008
Alex Miller, Landscape of Farewell (Allen and Unwin) (individual category)
The National Museum of Australia and Curator Margo Neale for Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kgnwarreye, curated by Margo Neale
2009
Peter Sutton, The Politics of Suffering: Indigenous Australia and the End of the Liberal Consensus (MUP) (individual category)
National Portrait Gallery Canberra, for the opening of their new venue, an expanded program and initial exhibitions (group Award)
MCH Fellowships
There are currently 2 types of residential fellowships on offer at Manning Clark House