South Australian Elder Major 'Moogy' Sumner has been honoured at the 2022 South Australian Environment Awards, receiving a lifetime achiever award and induction into the SA Environment Hall of Fame.

Uncle Moogy was recognised for spending a lifetime championing the Ngarrindjeri people by connecting performance with culture, and caring for people and Country.

He is a world-renowned cultural ambassador of arts, crafts and traditional culture, and a long-time defender of South Australia's environment.

After a lifetime of representing First Nations people with excellence and environmental advocacy, the highly respected Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna Elder has become a community leader and central figure in contemporary South Australia.

Mr Sumner has worked to develop local, national and international communities for over 30 years. Image: Major "Moogy" Sumner Facebook.

Uncle Moogy has campaigned against systems which allow rivers to be drained and oil and gas drilling in the Great Australian Bight.

"Aboriginal people are very patient people, but when we see that things are being done wrong, like they are for the river, we've got to come together and say it's wrong, and do something about it," Uncle Moogy said.

Mr Sumner has also had a considerable impact on First Nations people in South Australia.

In 2010 he initiated the inaugural Ringbalin Murrundi Rover Spirit project reigniting ceremonial fires along traditional Aborignal trade routes of the Darling and Murray Rivers and, in 2011, crafted the first Ngarrindjeri bark canoe on Country in South Australia in more than 100 years, reconnecting First Nations South Australians with traditional canoe building.

Mr Sumner is also a distinguished cultural artist, with his artwork spanning traditional dance and song, cultural advice, arts and crafts, such as wood carving, and martial arts techniques using handcrafted traditional shields, clubs, boomerangs and spears.

Major Sumner pictured in traditional paint with 'Moogy's Yuki', a bark canoe, paddle-spear. Image: Carl Kuddell.

Through his roles as a Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority board member, a board member of Black Dance Australia, and as the artistic director of the Tal Kin Jeri dance group, Mr Sumner continues to hand down the Ngarrindjeri culture to younger generations.

In reflecting on his lifetime achiever award, Mr Sumner said looking after people in-turn looks after the environment.

Caring for Country is a deep connection of listening and looking after our environment and people - it is healing for our spirit," he said.

"We truly are a force of nature - we come from nature.

"To look after Country is to look after community."

Mr Sumner was one of ten SA Environment Award recipients, five of which received lifetime achiever awards.