The scholarship was set up as a way to allow young First Nations people the opportunity to follow their dreams and use the stage to tell their stories.

Mr Brown admitted he was quite shocked to receive the award.

"I feel very grateful for it, it's an amazing scholarship to have because of what it represents," he said

"I feel honoured to have it for what it means and it's nice."

Mr Brown had to fill out an expression of interest form displaying things about himself and his aspirations for the future which was then looked over by a panel of people including Aunty Ruth Carney who is the late Uncle Dick's wife.

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Danielle Andrews from Orana Arts was pleased that Mr Brown put his application forward.

"Through the EOI process Aunty Ruth and a few other people sat on the panel and read through the applications and we were really excited that Jez came through," she said.

"He has a lot of passion for the industry, he knows where he wants to go and where he wants to be so we thought what a fantastic person to support through this process."

Mr Brown said his aspirations for wanting to become a director started when he was in kindergarten.

"When I was young I knew I wanted to be part of the entertainment industry I just didn't know exactly what," he said.

"Last year I decided I wanted to become a film director and what led me to that was seeing my interest in film and there is one film in particular that led me to want to become a film director and that would be Kill Bill.

"Because that's my favourite film and I love it so much. The soundtrack, the cinemaphotography and everything to do with it was absolutely amazing and led me to what to become a film director by creating amazing, awesome stories."

When asked who his favourite director was, Mr Brown opted to go against Quentin Taratino who directs his much loved film but chose a filmmaker with an impressive resume.

"My favourite director who probably have to be Tim Burton. I love his outlook on death which is beautiful and the way he basically shows death and life is amazing and I love everything little thing he has done," he said.

Ms Andrews said Uncle Dick and Aunty Ruth came to the Orana Arts program many years ago.

"Both Uncle Dick and Aunty Ruth came to Orana Arts for a series of community workshops and through those workshops, his [Uncle Dick] life story came to light and the team before me," she said.

"They just thought it was so special and had to put it on stage and that was the creation of A Little Piece of Heaven and that toured around this region and all the way down to Melbourne.

"They [Uncle Dick and Aunty Ruth] were originally like 'we don't want to be on stage, we want actors to play us' and the director John Harvey was like 'no way, you guys need to get on stage, it is so special your story'."

Ms Andrews said A Little Piece of Heaven was a testament to what the couple have had to endure.

"The story is a love story of 57 years together in rural NSW as Indigenous Australians and obviously there was a lot of hardships that they went through together," she said

"The resilience and the two together are just incredible and it was quite a magical moment to see them onstage.

"So it was a good example of what storytelling could do and the scholarship is to inspire other people like Jez to jump on stage and tell their stories and use art to become their own storytellers."

The newly-created Uncle Dick Carney Scholarship is to celebrate the life of the inspirational Narromine Elder who passed away in 2020.

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