Jared Thomas

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Jared Thomas
Born1976 (age 48–49)
Port Augusta, Australia
OccupationWriter
NationalityAustralian
Genre Young adult fiction, children's fiction, plays, poetry

Jared Thomas (born 1976) is an Australian author of children's fiction, playwright, and museum curator. Several of his books have been shortlisted for awards, and he has been awarded several fellowships, including a Churchill Fellowship in 2019. As of November 2024 Thomas is a research fellow for Indigenous culture and art at the South Australian Museum and the University of South Australia.

Contents

Early life and education

Thomas was born in Port Augusta in 1976, of Aboriginal, Scottish, and Irish heritage. He is a Nukunu man, born on Nukunu land in the Southern Flinders Ranges and raised within the Nukunu culture. [1]

He was inspired by seeing the play Funerals and Circuses by Arrernte playwright Roger Bennett when on a school excursion to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1992 and decided to study the humanities and writing. After excelling in his undergraduate BA degree at the University of Adelaide, he worked for the Fringe for a while before gaining a traineeship to work as an editor of a publication at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, where he developed a love of visual arts. [1]

Career

Working at the University of Adelaide as an academic advisor, he enrolled for a master's degree in creative writing and wrote plays. His work Love, Land and Money was later produced for the 2002 Adelaide Fringe. After having poems and short stories published in several anthologies, he started focusing on novels, and his first novel, Sweet Guy (2005) was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006 [1] [2] and the Festival Awards for Literature. [3]

As lecturer of Communication and Literature at the University of South Australia's David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research, Thomas enrolled for his PhD in Creative Writing, [1] which he completed in 2011. [4]

Thomas was a member of the working party involved in the creation of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) in 2012. [5] In September 2015, in a collaboration with Poets House in New York City, Thomas participated in a recording of six FNAWN members reading their work at a special event, which was recorded. The other readers were Jeanine Leane, Dub Leffler, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe, and Ellen van Neerven. [6]

He has coordinated Nukunu People's Council cultural heritage, language, and arts projects. [3] He was Arts Development Officer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts at Arts SA in 2018, [7] and as of 2019 is an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. [8]

In May 2018, Thomas began a 12-month secondment as William and Margaret Geary Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture at the South Australian Museum. [7] In this role he curated the Yurtu Ardla exhibition from March to June 2019. [9]

In September 2019, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to New Zealand, the US, Canada, and Norway, "to investigate colonised people's interpretative strategies in permanent gallery displays". [10] [11] [12]

In 2020, Thomas was employed as Indigenous consultant on two ABC TV series, Stateless [13] and Operation Buffalo . [14]

In September 2024, he was appointed a member of First Nations Arts, a newly-established division of the government arts funding body Australia Council focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts, for a term of four years. [15] [16] [17]

As of November 2024, Thomas is a research fellow for Indigenous culture and art at the South Australian Museum and the University of South Australia. [18]

Works

Novels

Plays

Non-fiction

Awards

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Jared Thomas". Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  2. ↑ "The Prize for Indigenous Writing: Shortlist 2006". State Library of Victoria. Archived from the original on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 "Jared Thomas". AustLit. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  4. ↑ "Dr Jared Thomas". South Australian Museum. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  5. ↑ Reed-Gilbert, Kerry (13 July 2018). "A short history of the First Nations Australia Writers Network". Overland literary journal. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "First Nations Australia Writers' Network Reading". Poets House. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Arts SA – Aboriginal & TSI Arts Development (4 May 2019)". Facebook. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  8. ↑ "Great Book Swap Launch in South Australia". Indigenous Literacy Foundation. 20 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Thomas, Jared (17 April 2019). "A celebration of Nukunu and Adnyamathanha wood carving/A shared vision". Adelaide Review (#470). Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  10. ↑ "2019 Churchill Fellowship Award Recipients". Churchill Trust. Archived from the original on 28 October 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "Australia's 2019 Churchill Fellowship Award recipients announced" (PDF). Churchill Trust (Press release). 23 September 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  12. ↑ Schultz, Harrison (13 October 2019). "Churchill Fellowship for local Southern Vales surfer Dr Jared Thomas". The Times on the Coast. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  13. ↑ Jared Thomas at IMDb
  14. ↑ Knox, David (24 May 2020). "Operation Buffalo". TV Tonight. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  15. ↑ "Inaugural First Nations Board for the arts". Ministers for the Department of Infrastructure. 9 September 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  16. ↑ Torre, Giovanni (13 September 2024). "CIAF chief executive Dennis Stokes appointed to Creative Australia's new First Nations Board". National Indigenous Times . Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  17. ↑ Holmes, Dan (11 September 2024). "First Nations Arts Board members revealed". The Mandarin. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  18. ↑ Burke, Kelly (8 November 2024). "Jamie Oliver apologises after his children's book is criticised for 'stereotyping' First Nations Australians". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  19. ↑ "Lucashenko wins 2014 Vic Prem's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing". Books+Publishing. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  20. ↑ Austlit. "Calypso Summer". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "White Ravens Database". White Ravens Database. Internationale Jugendbibliothek. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  22. ↑ Austlit. "White Ravens". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Winners of 2023 WA Premier's Book Awards announced". The National Tribune. 23 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  24. ↑ "Queensland Literary Awards 2023 shortlists". Books+Publishing. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
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