List of Indigenous Australian writers
Encyclopedia
Numerous Indigenous Australians are notable for their contributions to Australian literature and journalism.
Literature
- Edward Warrigal Anderson - novelist, winner of the David Unaipon Award in the Queensland Premier's Literary AwardsQueensland Premier's Literary AwardsThe Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were inaugurated in 1999 and have grown to become a leading literary awards program within Australia, with $225,000 in prizemoney over 14 categories. One of Australia's richest prizes, top categories offer up to $25,000 for 1st prize.-Fiction Book...
- Faith BandlerFaith BandlerFaith Bandler, AC also known as Ida Lessing Faith Mussing is an Australian civil rights activist of South Sea Islander heritage. She is a campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders. Bandler is best known for her leadership in the campaign for the 1967 referendum on...
- activist and novelist - Larissa BehrendtLarissa BehrendtLarissa Behrendt is an Australian academic and writer of Aboriginal and European descent. She is currently a Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney....
- activist, lawyer & novelist - Lisa BellearLisa BellearLisa Bellear was an Indigenous Australian poet, photographer, activist, spokeswoman, dramatist, comedian and broadcaster. She was a Goernpil woman of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah , Queensland...
- dramatist and poet - Roger BennettRoger BennettRoger Bennett was an Arrernte man from Central Australia, an actor, and a playwright. His best known works are Up the Ladder and Funerals and Circuses....
- playwright - Mary Carmel CharlesCarmel CharlesMary Carmel Charles was an author and the last fluent speaker of the Nyulnyul language of Western Australia.. She was born to the Nyulnyul tribe in the Kimberley region of Western Australia at the Beagle Bay Mission....
- children's fiction - Jimmy ChiJimmy ChiJimmy Chi was born in 1948 in Broome, Western Australia, to a Chinese/Japanese/Anglo-Australian father and a Scots/Bardi Aboriginal mother. He is a composer, musician and playwright.- Biography :...
- songwriter and playwright, winner of the 1997 Red Ochre Award from the Australia CouncilAustralia CouncilThe Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:... - Ali Cobby Eckermann - poet & verse novelist
- Jack DavisJack Davis (playwright)Jack Davis , was a notable Australian 20th Century playwright and poet, also an Indigenous rights campaigner. He was born in Western Australia, in the small town of Yarloop, and lived in Fremantle towards the end of his life. He was of the Aboriginal Noongar people, and much of his work dealt with...
- poet & playwright - Wesley EnochWesley EnochWesley Enoch is an Australian playwright and artistic director of Murri descent.- Life :The eldest son of Doug and Lyn Enoch from Stradbroke Island, Wesley Enoch grew up in Brisbane....
- playwright, director - Lionel FogartyLionel FogartyLionel Fogarty is an Indigenous Australian poet and political activist.He was born in 1958 at Barambah in Queensland where he grew up. He has been involved in Aboriginal activism from his teenage years, mainly in Southern Queensland on issues such as Land Rights, Aboriginal health and deaths in...
- poet and activist - Richard FranklandRichard FranklandFor the nonconformist minister, see Richard Frankland Richard Joseph Frankland is an Australian playwright, scriptwriter and musician. He is an Aboriginal Australian of Gunditjmara origin from Victoria. He has worked significantly for the Aboriginal Australian cause.-Biography:Richard J. Frankland...
- playwright, filmmaker, singer, songwriter - Kevin GilbertKevin Gilbert (author)Kevin Gilbert was a 20th century Indigenous Australian activist, artist, poet, playwright and printmaker. He is also a past winner of the National Book Council prize for writers.- Life :...
- activist, writer, artist - Jane Harrison - playwright
- Ruth HegartyRuth HegartyRuth Hegarty is an Aboriginal Elder and author.Hegarty is well known for her non-fiction novels that document her personal history as one of the Stolen Generation. Her first book, Is That You Ruthie?, is based on her experiences in the Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission where she lived until the age of...
- writer - Anita HeissAnita HeissAnita Heiss is a contemporary Australian author of Austrian and Indigenous Australian descent.Anita Heiss is from the Wiradjuri people though she grew up in and lives in Sydney. Her mother was brought up in a Catholic mission and her father is originally from Austria...
novelist, poet & children's author - Ruby Langford GinibiRuby Langford GinibiRuby Langford Ginibi was an acclaimed Bundjalung author, historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics.-Names:...
- writer, historian, autobiographer - Sally MorganSally Morgan (artist)Sally Jane Morgan is an Australian Aboriginal author, dramatist, and artist. Morgan's works are on display in numerous private and public collections in both Australia and around the world.-Early life:...
- writer - MudroorooMudroorooColin Thomas Johnson, better known by his nom de plume, Mudrooroo is a novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He has been described as one of the most enigmatic literary figures of Australia and since 2001 he has been living in Kapan, Nepal...
(Colin Johnson) - poet,author playwright - Oodgeroo NoonuccalOodgeroo NoonuccalOodgeroo Noonuccal was an Australian poet, political activist, artist and educator. She was also a campaigner for Aboriginal rights...
(Kath Walker) - poet - Doris Pilkington GarimaraDoris Pilkington GarimaraDoris Pilkington Garimara AM is an Australian author. She is best known for her 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, a story of three Aboriginal girls, among them Pilkington's mother Molly Craig, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia and travelled for nine...
- Kim ScottKim ScottKim Scott is an Australian novelist of Indigenous Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of West Australian Noongar people.- Biography :...
- novelist - Margaret TuckerMargaret TuckerMargaret Lilardia Tucker was an Indigenous Australian activist and writer.Margaret Tucker was born at Warrangesda Mission to William Clements, a Wiradjuri man and Teresa Clements, née Middleton, a Yulupna women...
activist and author of If Everyone Cared (1977) one of the first autobiographies of the Stolen Generations - Glenyse Ward author of autobiographical 'Wandering Girl' and of children's books.
- Samuel Wagan WatsonSamuel Wagan WatsonSamuel Wagan Watson is a contemporary Indigenous Australian poet.Samuel Wagan Watson was born in Brisbane, his family is Irish, German, Bundjalung and Birri Gubba...
- poet - Sam Watson - novelist and filmmaker
- Herb WhartonHerb WhartonHerb Wharton is an Indigenous Australian former stockman and now internationally recognised poet and novelist.A Murri man, his maternal grandmother was Kooma, and both grandfathers Irish...
- poet and novelist - Tara June WinchTara June WinchTara June Winch is an Australian writer of Aboriginal and European descent. Her first book, Swallow the Air, won several major Australian literary awards.-Life:...
- novelist - Alexis WrightAlexis WrightAlexis Wright is an Indigenous Australian writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel Carpentaria....
- Miles Franklin AwardMiles Franklin AwardThe Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ...
winning novelist - Big Bill NeidjieBig Bill NeidjieBig Bill Neidjie was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an indigenous language from northern Kakadu after which the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is named. He was a senior elder of Kakadu National Park and a traditional owner of the Bunitj estate in northern Kakadu,...
Journalism
- Stan Grant (journalist)
- John NewfongJohn NewfongJohn Newfong , Aboriginal Australian journalist and writer, was the first Aboriginal person to be employed as an journalist in the mainstream print media.Newfong was born in Wynnum, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, in 1943...
- Rhianna PatrickRhianna PatrickRhianna Patrick is a Torres Strait Islander former member of the Triple J News Team. She was born in Brisbane and grew up in Weipa before moving to Sydney; her family is of the Zagareb tribe on Mer in the eastern islands of the Torres Strait...