The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) have named blues musician Marlene Cummins and the group Saltwater Band as their 2026 Hall of Fame inductees, as reported by the National Indigenous Times on July 28, 2026 National Indigenous Times.

Cummins, a Guguyelandji woman on her father's side and Woppaburra on her mother's side, was born in Cunnamulla, Queensland. She is regarded as one of Australia's leading Indigenous female blues voices, and studied saxophone and songwriting at Boston's Berklee College of Music. Her song "Koori Woman" stands as a dedication to Indigenous women. Beyond music, Cummins produced the documentary Black Panther Woman, chronicling her history within the Australian Black Panther movement Billboard.

Saltwater Band come from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, off the Northern Territory coast. Their music threaded traditional song through reggae and ska-influenced pop, sung mostly in Yolŋu languages. The band earned multiple NIMAs and Deadly Awards across their career, and their album Djarridjarri was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album in 2004 Billboard.

The band's most prominent member was the late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, already a NIMAs Hall of Fame inductee in his own right. Gurrumul was inducted into the Hall of Fame by fellow Saltwater Band founding member Manuel Dhurrkay. Before co-founding Saltwater Band, Gurrumul played in Yothu Yindi — the internationally recognised group behind the landmark 1991 single "Treaty." His solo debut album Gurrumul (2008) reached No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Australia's main album chart, and won two ARIA Awards. Gurrumul sold an estimated half a million records worldwide before his death in 2017 at age 46, making him the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician in history Billboard.

The 2026 NIMAs ceremony takes place at Darwin Amphitheater in Garramilla/Darwin on Saturday, August 8, 2026, hosted by Rob Collins and Leila Gurruwiwi. The performance lineup includes Baker Boy, Electric Fields, BIG NOTER, Stiff Gins, Bumpy, Casii Williams, South Summit, and Zipporah Billboard.

Artist of the Year nominees for 2026 are 3%, Baker Boy, Birdz and Fred Leone, Bumpy, Jem Cassar-Daley, Miss Kaninna, and South Summit Billboard.

The night before the ceremony, the Blak Loud Showcase — presented by Amazon Music Australia and Awesome Blak — will take over Darwin's Bustard Town on August 7 as the unofficial opening night. The showcase features performances by South Summit, Zipporah, and Casii Williams. Free RSVPs are available through the NIMA website Billboard.

What gives this year's Hall of Fame announcement its weight is the breadth it spans: Cummins, who carried her blues craft from outback Queensland to Berklee and back, alongside a band whose sound grew from Elcho Island's traditions and went on to launch the most successful Aboriginal recording artist the Australian charts have seen. The NIMAs Hall of Fame already includes figures like Kev Carmody and Warumpi Band's Sammy Butcher, placing Cummins and Saltwater Band within a lineage the awards have built over more than two decades.