Triple J Unearthed Opens 2016 National Indigenous Music Awards Competition

Aspiring Indigenous Australian musicians have an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of artists such as Thelma Plum and Philly and enjoy significant rewards and experiences by applying to this year's Triple J Unearthed National Indigenous Music Awards competition.

The Unearthed NIMAs, which are open now, have run for the past five years, with both Plum and Philly having won previous iterations along with fellow musos Robbie Miller and Zane Francis. As this year's winner will do on Saturday 6 August, the pair performed at a NIMAs ceremony before going on to significant wider acclaim on the Australian musical landscape.

Along with the aforementioned performance slot at the awards, the prizes include a $500 performance fee, travel and accommodation and guaranteed airplay on triple j and its digital sister station, triple j Unearthed.

Applying to the competition is simply — artists just need to upload their songs to triple j Unearthed by Sunday 3 July and ensure that 'Indigenous' is selected in their artist profile to be in the running. If your tunes are already uploaded and your profile is tagged under 'Indigenous', you're automatically in the running.

See the Unearthed NIMAs competition website for a full rundown of terms and conditions.

For more information about the NIMAs themselves, see the event's website.