A chat with In.Site Awards People winner Toni Dugdale

Now that the 2021 In.Site Photographic Competition is finished, we decided to highlight our category winners to learn a little bit more about them and their submissions.

First up was our Environment category winner Paul Thomsen, followed by Community category winner Martin Heller. Now, we chat with Toni Dugdale, who won this year’s People category for her submission, ‘Gotcha’.

Toni is an external comms manager at Origin Energy, where she works to promote the company’s work in regional communities. Born in Sydney but based in Queensland since her teenage years, she is also a volunteer coastguard and busy mum of two.

Her winning photo depicts local David McCarthy (Thulaida) at an opening ceremony for the company’s recently refurbished offices in Roma, Queensland. Thulaida, who also goes by Dook, runs a collaboration called Dhibin Dagunu, which shares cultural stories and experiences through Aboriginal artwork and ceremonies.

“I’m really proud of the work that we are doing with Traditional Owners and the growing partnerships,” Toni says.

“Dook, the man in the picture, also did an amazing artwork for our office. He captures what we’re trying to say; that we’re in this together and trying to help each other out.”

Toni was also attracted to the competition from an altruistic standpoint, and eventually submitted several photos to the competition to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

“I entered because $10 from each entry went to the Royal Flying Doctors, I think I submitted about 10 images because my goal was $100 for the Flying Doctors,” Toni says.

Despite this, Toni did not expect to win in her submitted categories and was quite taken aback when she heard she had won this year’s People category, which includes prizes such as a $1,000 for Ted’s Cameras, a winner’s certificate, and a professionally framed print of the winning photograph.

“I was really surprised when I found out I won. It was cool to win the voucher for Ted’s as well; Dook said he is going to give the framed picture to his mum.”

To find out more about Dhibin Dagunu, visit the Facebook page here.