Founded | 1987 |
---|---|
Country of origin | Australia |
Headquarters location | Broome, Western Australia |
Publication types | Books |
Nonfiction topics | Indigenous Australian culture |
Official website | magabala |
Magabala Books is an Indigenous Australian publishing house based in Broome, Western Australia, founded in 1987. [1] [2] Their stated objective is "restoring, preserving and maintaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures". [3] The name Magabala is a Yawuru, Karrajari and Nyulnyul word for the bush banana. [4] In 1990, they became an independent Aboriginal corporation. [5]
Their published literature includes Aboriginal lore, children's books and oral history. [6] [7] Many prominent Australian Indigenous authors have been published with Magabala Books. [8] including Anita Heiss, [9] Ali Cobby Eckermann, Jimmy Pike, Alexis Wright, Bronwyn Bancroft, Jack Davis, Bill Neidjie, Stephen Hagan, Jack Davis, Jimmy Chi [10] and Bruce Pascoe. [11] [12]
In May 2020, Magabala won the Small Publisher of the Year award at the Australian Book Industry Awards [13] and again in 2024. [14]
The Magabala Fellowship, first launched in August 2020 and valued at A$10,000, is open to First Nations writers who have had at least one book published. [15] Winners include Tristan Michael Savage in 2020, [16] Sue McPherson and Charmaine Papertalk Green in 2021, [17] Vivienne Cleven in 2022 [18] and Brenton McKenna in 2023. [19]
Wiradjuri is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It is the traditional language of the Wiradjuri people, an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales, Australia. Wiraiari and Jeithi may have been dialects.
The Gadigal, also spelled as Cadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. However, since the colonisation of Australia, most Gadigal people have been displaced from their traditional lands
Lionel Fogarty, also published as Lionel Lacey, is an Indigenous Australian poet and political activist.
Alexis Wright is a Waanyi writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel Carpentaria and for being the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" Tilmouth and in 2024 for Praiseworthy.Praiseworthy also won her the Miles Franklin Award in 2024, making her the first person to win the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Award in the same year.
Anita Marianne Heiss is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her membership of boards and committees.
The Children's Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books was first presented in 1988, when the award was financed by Eve Pownall's family. Since 1993 it has been awarded annually by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, is the national bio-bibliographical database of Australian Literature. It is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration between researchers and librarians from Australian universities, housed at The University of Queensland (UQ). The AustLit database comprises a comprehensive bio-bibliographical record of Australian storytelling and print cultures with over 1 million individual 'work' records, and over 75 discrete research projects.
Bruce Pascoe is an Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Pascoe identifies as Aboriginal. Since August 2020, he has been Enterprise Professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne.
Tony Birch is an Aboriginal Australian author, academic and activist. He regularly appears on ABC local radio and Radio National shows and at writers’ festivals. He was head of the honours programme for creative writing at the University of Melbourne before becoming the first recipient of the Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship at Victoria University in Melbourne in June 2015.
Ali Cobby Eckermann is an Australian poet of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. She is a Yankunytjatjara woman born on Kaurna land in South Australia.
Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2018.
Jared Thomas 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 three writing fellowships.
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". Works are first selected by an academy of more than 200 industry professionals, and then a shortlist and winners are chosen by judging panels.
Charmaine Papertalk Green is an Indigenous Australian poet. As Charmaine Green she works as a visual and installation artist.
Helen Milroy is a consultant psychiatrist with the Western Australia Department of Health, specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry, and director of the Western Australian Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health. She is recognised as the first Indigenous Australian to become a medical doctor. She is also a storyteller who has written three books for children.
Alison Whittaker is a Gomeroi writer and a senior researcher at the University of Technology Sydney. A review in World Literature Today called her "Australia's most important recently emerged poet".
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia is a 2018 biographical anthology compiled and edited by Anita Heiss and published by Black Inc. It includes 52 short written pieces by Aboriginal Australians from many walks of life and discusses issues like Australian history of colonisation and assimilation, activism, significance of country, culture and language, identity and intersectionality, family, and racism. Notable contributors include poet Tony Birch, singer Deborah Cheetham, Australian rules footballer Adam Goodes, and actress Miranda Tapsell. The book won the 2019 Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year award at the Australian Book Industry Awards.
Elsie Heiss, also known as Aunty Elsie, is an Indigenous Australian, a Wiradjuri elder and a Catholic religious leader. She has led Aboriginal Catholic Ministry programs for over three decades and was NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year in 2009.
Evelyn Araluen is an Australian poet and literary editor. She won the 2022 Stella Prize with her first book, Dropbear.