Deadly Awards

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Arts and Community Awards, commonly known as The Deadlys, were an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. The word "deadly" is a modern colloquialism used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to indicate "great or wonderful". ==History==

The Deadly Awards stemmed from the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-op's 1993 Deadly Sounds music and culture radio show, and were driven by Gavin Jones. Jones created Vibe Australia, a management agency which ran The Deadlys, Over the next few years, their venue shifted through The Metro Theatre, the Hard Rock Café, Home in Darling Harbour, Fox Studios, and others. Then 2001 began The Deadlys residency at the Sydney Opera House, from where the annual gala was broadcast by National Indigenous Television. ==Cancellation==

In June 2014 it was announced by the Abbott government that funding for the Vibe Project would be cut from 1 July, in measures designed to reallocate funding to Indigenous education programs and other frontline services. Deadly funding in that year was phased back to $1 million and no funding provided for future years. All Vibe projects, including The Deadly Sounds radio show concluded on 30 June 2014. After a story was run on Triple J's Hack program on 15 July 2014, a groundswell of community support for saving the Deadly Awards began. A petition on Change.org attracted over 26,000 signatures and a Kickstarter campaign reached . ==See also==