Filmmaker Ivan Sen wins Kate Challis RAKA 2024 Award
The Faculty of Arts is delighted to announce that filmmaker Ivan Sen has won the 2024 Kate Challis RAKA Award for his feature film Limbo.
Pictured: Filmmaker Ivan Sen, winner of the Kate Challis RAKA 2024 Award. Credit: Euraba Films.
RAKA, which means 'five' in the Pintupi language, is awarded annually to an Indigenous artist for a work in one of five categories: creative prose, poetry, script writing, drama and visual arts.
In bestowing the Award, the selection committee praised Sen’s script-writing for Limbo, calling it “bold, innovative, and assured”.
“A seasoned writer for film, Sen creates magic with Limbo – a small cast in a large desert landscape with minimal dialogue and sound retraces the 20-year-old cold case of disappeared Aboriginal teenager Charlotte Hayes.
“The trauma felt by her siblings and community is palpable. The politics of policing underwrites the movements of the detective sent out to consider reviving the case (ultimately the decision is made to not re-investigate).
“A brief phase of sexual attraction between Charlotte’s surviving sister and the detective is very human and understated.
“Sen brings the filmmaker’s eye to script-writing and a writerly sensibility to filming Limbo allowing space for improvisation from the script’s prompts and seemingly allowing space too for the stark and hot landscape to work on his characters, his actors, and the story”.
In accepting the award, Mr. Sen said:
"I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive the 2024 Kate Challis RAKA Award. My heartfelt thanks go to the Smith family for their unwavering support of Australian Indigenous artists. I am also truly grateful to the selection committee for their time, dedication, and head-space, and to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne for their steadfast commitment to this award.
"I want to acknowledge Bernard Smith and Kate Challis, whose recognition of Indigenous Australia throughout their lives has left a legacy I deeply respect and appreciate.
"Limbo is a story that was conceived directly from the experience of my extended family but unfortunately the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women is far from unique to our community. It is yet another example of how this country has refused to truly engage with Indigenous Australians, continuing instead to turn a blind eye – yet another reminder of how little we have grown as a nation – where some of us seem to be worth less than others.
"The creation of this Award is the result of special people doing special things. The hope is that one day the special people will no longer be seen as such.
"They will be the norm".
A special commendation for the RAKA went to Dannielle Booth for The White Dress. Full citations and past winners of the Kate Challis RAKA Award can be found on the Faculty of Arts website.