The Nationwide Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) have named blues musician Marlene Cummins and Elcho Island’s Saltwater Band because the 2026 Corridor of Fame inductees, forward of the ceremony in Darwin subsequent month.
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Cummins — a Guguyelandji girl on her father’s aspect and Woppaburra on her mom’s — is considered one in all Australia’s main Indigenous feminine blues voices. Born in Cunnamulla, Queensland, she studied saxophone and songwriting at Boston’s Berklee Faculty of Music and has labored throughout music, broadcasting, activism, dance and performing.
Her profession has included award-winning radio work, the documentary Black Panther Lady, which chronicled her personal historical past inside the Australian Black Panther motion, and the music “Koori Lady,” written as a dedication to Indigenous girls.
Saltwater Band, from Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island, are recognised for a list that threaded conventional music by means of reggae and ska-influenced pop, sung principally in Yolŋu languages. The band’s most distinguished member was the late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, already a Corridor of Fame inductee — inducted by fellow founding member Manuel Dhurrkay — who went on to change into probably the most commercially profitable Aboriginal Australian musician in historical past.
Earlier than co-founding Saltwater Band, Yunupingu performed in Yothu Yindi, the internationally recognised group behind the landmark 1991 single “Treaty.” His solo debut Gurrumul (2008) reached No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart and gained two ARIA Awards, and he bought an estimated half one million information worldwide earlier than his dying in 2017 at 46. Saltwater Band earned a number of NIMAs and Lethal Awards throughout their profession, with their album Djarridjarri nominated for the ARIA Award for Finest World Music Album in 2004.
The 2026 NIMAs happen at Darwin Amphitheater in Garramilla/Darwin on Saturday, Aug. 8, hosted by Rob Collins and Leila Gurruwiwi. The efficiency lineup options Baker Boy, Electrical Fields, BIG NOTER, Stiff Gins, Bumpy, Casii Williams, South Summit and Zipporah, with extra to be introduced. The night time’s Artist of the Yr nominees embrace 3%, Baker Boy, Birdz and Fred Leone, Bumpy, Jem Cassar-Daley, Miss Kaninna and South Summit.
Forward of the ceremony, the Blak Loud Showcase — offered by Amazon Music Australia and Superior Blak — will function the unofficial opening night time at Darwin’s Bustard City on Aug. 7, that includes South Summit, Zipporah and Casii Williams. Free RSVPs can be found by means of the NIMA web site.
