My Awesome Australian

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Australian honours system with the National Portrait Gallery and the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General.

The Australian honours system has been recognising outstanding Australians for 50 years! To celebrate the anniversary, we’re inviting school students from across the country to create a portrait of someone in their community who they think deserves to be recognised.

Selected portraits will form part of an online exhibition that will be officially launched by Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, and all participating students will be invited to the virtual opening with the Governor-General in September 2025.

Get involved by inviting your students to create a portrait to share the faces and stories of people from their community. Portraits can be created in any of the following mediums: painting, drawing, sculpture or textile. Submitted portraits cannot be a photograph.

Students are encouraged to include a short statement of 100 words or less telling us why the person in their portrait is special, and what award (real or fictional) they would give them if they had the chance.

Need some support getting started? Register for our online making workshops where we will explore remarkable people from the National Portrait Collection and guide your students in making activities.

Entries are open until 19 June 2025 and the online exhibition will launch on 11 September 2025.