Indigenous Australians<\/a>, Malarndirri McCarthy, said this year\u2019s winners \u201cembody the spirit of Naidoc\u201d, with the annual event celebrating 50 years.<\/p>\n\u201cThey are leaders, advocates, artists, educators, innovators and community champions whose work is creating positive change and inspires others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we celebrate 50 Years of Deadly, we also celebrate the generations of First Nations people who have strengthened our communities and helped shape a better future for all Australians.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Roberts worked as a creative director and choreographed the Awakening segment of the opening ceremony, which was watched by millions of people around the globe.<\/p>\n
She was also recognised as the first Aboriginal person to host a prime-time current affairs program, SBS\u2019s Vox Populi in 1991, and then working in radio in 1992 she co-founded Deadly Sounds, which ran for 21 years, giving Indigenous people a voice across Australia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Roberts also became the inaugural head of Indigenous programming at the Sydney Opera House in 2012. While there, she initiated Dance Rites, a First Nations dance competition, and advocated for the inclusion of Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Deadly awards.<\/p>\n
She also became creative director of the Parrtjima festival of light in Alice Springs\/Mparntwe in 2017.<\/p>\n
Other winners recognised on the night include:<\/p>\n
Person of the year: Aunty Pat Turner<\/p>\n
Female Elder of the year: Christine Corby<\/p>\n
Male Elder of the year: Dr Stephen Hagan<\/p>\n
Sportsperson of the year: Caitlyn Costello<\/p>\n
Youth of the year: Tyson Neal-Edwards<\/p>\n
Creative talent award: Kaylene Whiskey<\/p>\n
Caring for country and culture award: Southern Aboriginal Corporation<\/p>\n
Education award: The Aboriginal & Islander Independent Community School (The Murri School)<\/p>\n
Innovation award: Young Indigenous Women\u2019s STEM Academy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Australia\u2019s greatest cultural ambassadors has been recognised posthumously for dedicating her life to sharing, preserving and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-856813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856813","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=856813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}