Celebrating our own
We’re crotch deep in awards season and that means there are still a lot more opportunities to see people who don’t have what your grandmother would call “real jobs”, collect accolades and pretend to be gracious about it. Typically, this is the time of year when people wax or wane lyrical about various American or British prize-giving ceremonies, but in an age of rising nationalism maybe it’s time we make a fuss about one of our own. Cue the 2019 Arts and Culture Trust Awards.
Since 1998 the ACT Awards have given a healthy dose of applause to individuals and organisations that have made waves in the SA arts and culture sector, recognising our biggest names in visual art, theatre, music, literature, arts advocacy and dance. The lifetime achievement award in particular has become something of a hall of fame for South Africans whose careers have had a deep impact within our borders and far beyond. Previous winners of the ACT Lifetime Achievement award include the likes of: Don Mattera, Albie Sachs, Miriam Makeba, Sam Nzima, Nadine Gordimer, Esther Mahlangu, Pops Mohamed, Gcina Mhlope, John Kani and an entire constellation of SA stars. This year’s awards (February 22nd) are set to add more lustre to that already incandescent list but nonetheless raise an interesting question, what exactly does it take to become a lifetime achiever and who decides that poet X is more deserving than author Y?
Well, if your favourite doesn’t win, it is best to send your hate tweets to the ACT board of trustees. Chances are they won’t read them but you will undoubtedly feel a little better once you let that little piece of vitriol fly. Before you do, though, bear in mind that the criteria for winning is slightly less opaque than the Oscars. According to the ACT website, to be considered for a Lifetime Achievement Award one needs to: • Be an SA citizen residing in the country; • Have spent 60 or more years on Earth, made one or a series of outstanding contributions to advance, promote and/or improve the state of SA music, dance, visual art, literature or arts advocacy in SA;
• Have led/inspired the advancement of theatre, music, literature and arts advocacy in SA;
• And finally, perhaps most importantly, one needs to still be alive.
The age limit is restrictive because it doesn’t make room for biologically younger people who have made an indelible impact on the sector to be considered.
For example, Oskido, the DJ, is still a way away from being a lifetime achiever in the eyes of ACT.
That said, it doesn’t mean we can’t get behind them.
The ACT Awards offer us a unique opportunity to actually have a dog in the awards show race. After all, these are our legends and our storytellers. Unlike the Oscars or Emmys or whatever else, the ACT Awards celebrate the lives of people whose impact we can directly feel, and that is as good a reason as any to get behind an award show.