{"id":754654,"date":"2026-06-23T08:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754654\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T08:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:28:23","slug":"lila-mcguire-celebrates-success-of-first-nations-talent-in-logie-nominations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/754654\/","title":{"rendered":"Lila McGuire celebrates success of First Nations talent in Logie nominations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two young First Nations actresses who brought the story of tennis champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley to life are among a strong cohort of Indigenous performers recognised in this year’s Logie nominations.<\/p>\n

Lila McGuire, 29, and 10-year-old Eloise Hart both portrayed the legendary Australian athlete in the ABC’s three-part drama Goolagong<\/a>, which has been nominated for Best Miniseries\/Telemovie.<\/p>\n

The pair are among six nominees \u2014 including Bundjalung and Lamalama actor Tamala \u2014 in the running for the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

First Nations actresses Lila McGuire, left, Eloise Hart, centre, and Tamala\u00a0are three of the six Logie nominees for Most Popular New Talent. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

McGuire has also been nominated for the Silver Logie for Best Lead Actress in a Drama, where four of the six nominees are women of colour.<\/p>\n

A Noongar Boodjar woman, McGuire learned of her award nominations on Monday morning and said the thought of winning gave her goosebumps.<\/p>\n

“I dreamed about it, but it was one of those things where it’s so surreal when it’s actually happening,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Baby me was dreaming about this day and just being nominated is so huge.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Eloise Hart played a young Evonne Goolagong Cawley in Goolagong. (ABC iview)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Yamatji\/Noongar actor Hart, who portrayed Goolagong Cawley’s childhood years in the miniseries, has also been recognised for her role in the ABC’s Mystery Road: Origin.<\/a><\/p>\n

She said being nominated for a Logie for the characters she’s played is “really beyond exciting”.<\/p>\n

“Some of those stories remind me of the experiences my grandmothers and so many Indigenous families have lived through,” Hart said.<\/p>\n

“Others celebrate people like Evonne Goolagong, who showed generations of Aboriginal kids what was possible.<\/p>\n

“I feel proud knowing that one day I can look back and say I was part of something bigger than myself. I just want to make my family and people proud.”Multiple nods for First Nations actors<\/p>\n

This year’s Logie Award nominations saw strong First Nations representation across award categories and networks.<\/p>\n

Mystery Road: Origin \u2014 which featured an all-Blak writing team<\/a> \u2014 received five nominations, including Best Drama Program.<\/p>\n

The show’s lead actor, Mark Coles Smith, is nominated for a Silver Logie alongside Hunter Page-Lochard (Reckless, SBS\/NITV) and Rob Collins (RFDS, Seven Network) \u2014 meaning three of the six nominees for the Best Lead Actor in a Drama are First Nations actors.<\/p>\n

Among the five nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Clarence Ryan for his performance on Mystery Road: Origin, and Thomas Weatherall for his roles on Heartbreak High (Netflix) and The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Prime Video).<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Tuuli Narkle and Mark Coles Smith have both received Logies nominations for their roles in Mystery Road: Origin. (ABC iview\/Bunya Productions)<\/p>\n

McGuire said she was emotional upon hearing of the nominations for Indigenous talent.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t realise quite how many of us there were. That’s so wonderful. I’m trying to hold back tears,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Look at us go! Look at all this incredible diversity on our screens.<\/p>\n

“The fact that we’re at this point in the industry, being able to showcase all of our hard work and all of our talent, it’s incredibly special.”2026 Logie nominations<\/a><\/p>\n

The annual awards show also introduced a new category honouring Australian sports journalists, named after legendary commentator Bruce McAvaney.<\/p>\n

McGuire said it was a “very important time” and not something she could have imagined as a child.<\/p>\n

“There weren’t many mob on screen when I was a little one,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So to see it happening, it’s so beautiful and important, I think, for all the little ones out there, those young mob, seeing so many of us excelling.<\/p>\n

“It’s a gift to have some good representation for us in the media. I’m just so proud.”<\/p>\n

McGuire added that it was validating to see positive change playing out.<\/p>\n

“This is something that our old people would have been dreaming of \u2014 to see our young ones and their descendants succeeding in this country,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Change doesn’t happen immediately. It happens slowly. And the fact that there are so many of us up there, it feels like things have been changing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two young First Nations actresses who brought the story of tennis champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley to life are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[361511,64,63,134,148146,361512,209040,209039,35181,34652,122586],"class_list":["post-754654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-2026-logie-nominations","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-evonne-goolagong-cawley","tag-first-nations-representation","tag-goolagong","tag-lila-mcguire","tag-logie-awards","tag-logies","tag-mystery-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}