Photography prize helps honour survivors of Kinchela

On August 30, 2025, the Olive Cotton Portrait Photography Prize was awarded at the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah to artist Tace Stevens for her portrait ‘Uncle Bill’. Olive Cotton, who the prize was named after, was a photographer who lived in Koorawatha and ran a studio in Cowra’s Calare Building for two decades. Her portraits, filled with warmth and skill, still hang in family homes across the region today. Her legacy of artistry and kindness inspired her family to sponsor the award when it was first established in 2005, ensuring her influence on Australian portraiture continued. The moving work from Tace Stevens forms part of her series ‘We Were Just Little Boys’, which documents survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home. The portrait carries deep historical meaning, especially for Cowra. During the early years of World War II, when many local men had left the district to enlist, several children from the Erambie Mission in Cowra were forcibly removed and sent to Kinchela. The children were among those who were systematically kidnapped from their families and communities under accepted practices that created the Stolen Generations. Stevens’ winning work honours her uncle, himself a survivor of Kinchela, while also giving visibility to a painful chapter of history that was long left unspoken outside the Aboriginal community.