Papusza received an award from the Polish Minister of Culture in 1978, marking renewed official recognition of her literary contributions.
In 1978, Papusza received an award presented by the Polish Minister of Culture, a significant national-level recognition that came near the end of her life, after decades of personal hardship, illness, and social isolation following the controversy surrounding the publication of her poetry in the 1950s.
This award represented a form of official rehabilitation and renewed appreciation for her pioneering role as the first Romani poet in Poland to publish under her own name. By the late 1970s, Polish cultural institutions increasingly recognized the historical and literary importance of her body of work, even as Papusza herself continued to suffer from the psychological toll of her earlier ostracism from the Roma community and the mental health struggles that had plagued her since the 1950s, including periods of institutionalization.
Though the precise date of the award's presentation within 1978 is not documented in the available sources, this recognition — alongside the Nadodrza Cultural Award and the Gorzów Award received in the same year — reflects a cluster of honors that arrived late in her life, underscoring the bittersweet nature of her legacy: celebrated by cultural authorities even as she remained personally isolated and impoverished in Inowrocław, cared for by her sister.