Welcome to the second edition of Black Words E-News, a bi-monthly briefing to keep you informed of the ever changing face of Black Words, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers dataset at AustLit (http://www.austlit.edu.au/specialistDatasets/BlackWords).

We recently said goodbye to Carolyn Moylan from the UWA desk, and we thank her for all the work she did in building up the Western Australian side of the subset, particularly Noongar writers in and around Perth. We wish Carolyn well in her further studies into Indigenous women's writing. And he we thank her for helping us a replacement in Josie Harp who is already on the job.

Josie is a Nyungar woman from Perth, and has extensive community ties and has had experience in the Centre for Aboriginal Studies library at Curtin.

Josie's mother Beryl Harp is a Nyungar children's writer, language teacher and has developed educational language tapes/books. Josie has worked with her mother and has also facilitated cultural workshops for non-Indigenous women.

If you are an Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander writer or storyteller from or based in Western Australia then Josie would love to hear from you. Please send your bio and publications list to her at: jharp@library.uwa.edu.au.

Black Words featured at this year's Wordstorm Festival in Darwin, providing the perfect opportunity to showcase to the large Indigenous delegation our new look site, and the number of works indexed from the NT, Darwin and indeed the Larrakia nation (the traditional owners of country in and around Darwin). The 'launch' of a kind was attended by about 60 writers and locals and was held in conjunction with the launch of the recently released Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature at the Mbantua Gallery.

Both Anita Heiss (National Coordinator) and Yvette Holt (Researcher at UQ) spoke at the event and also participated on panels throughout the festival.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Sandra Thibodeaux, artistic director of the festival and executive officer of the NT Writers' Centre for including us on what was a rich and diverse program of voices from around Australia and southeast Asia.

The trip north also provided the opportunity for Kerry Kilner to meet with Anne Devenish (Assistant Director) and Cate Richmond from the NT Library to discuss potential collaboration on a digital storytelling project the Library is currently undertaking. It has long been a goal of Black Words to profile digital stories within the subset to be enjoyed by viewers around the country and the globe.

Our Black Words team member at Flinders University, Yaritji Green, has just been given a permanent position at the Flinders Library, and will be working as a trainee librarian in addition to working for AustLit on Black Words. Congratulations Yaritji!

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of working on Alec Kruger's biography for Black Words. To do this I had to read Alone on the Soaks, a book that won the 2007 Non Fiction Human Rights Award. Kruger is a stolen generation child; taken at the age of three, by the time he was ten he was working full time doing station work. Kruger's story is told with strength and dignity, it is a story of survival.

Another book I enjoyed working on was Indigenous Australia Standing Strong compiled by Penny Tweedie. There are sixty-two stories by Indigenous Australians sharing their story and their views on reconciliation. The Indigenous people in this book are excelling in areas they are passionate about. For example when Jamie Liddle was a young man, he sold thousands of eggs to help pay for his pilot lessons, now he is a qualified pilot and has flown to many destinations around the world. Graham Kenyon and Phillip Goodman are park rangers at Djukbinj National Park; they are maintaining their land, keeping their culture strong and sharing their heritage with visitors. Indigenous Australia Standing Strong is a book of Indigenous role models.

If you are looking for a great book to read, get a hold of My Ngarrindjeri Calling by Doreen Kartinyeri (1935-2007). This story is from a Ngarrindjeri Elder who fought to protect women's sites where the Hindmarsh Island Bridge, South Australia, was built.

Hi there folks, April and May have proven to be very exciting and twice as busy months for me personally and for researchers of Black Words as the literature season is well and truly upon us with festivals starting at WordStorm in Darwin. Readings aside, Anita Heiss and Peter Minter did a fantastic job launching the Macquarie PEN Anthology at the festival. It was my first trip to Darwin and I have to say I love the town. The writers' festival was warm with enthusiastic attendance and interesting topics for panel discussions.

Fast forward to May and the Sydney Writer's Festival was flowing in full swing (I didn't get a chance to skip into Sydney for the festival) but nonetheless I'm sure those of us who attended would have been basking in the glorious Sydney autumn mornings by the wharf. The SWF is what I refer to as the Melbourne Cup of writer's festivals and I hope to be there next year...for sure!

I also recently returned from a presentation workshop at Varuna Writer's Centre, located in the beautiful Blue Mountains (Katoomba), where Anita and I presented an afternoon session on writing from Indigenous women's perspective, cultural protocols and editing of works. This was the 6th Residential Editorial Program organised by the Australian Publishers Association and our contribution as poets/writers was well received from editors across multiple genres who are passionate about the culturally appropriate representation of Indigenous Australians in literature format.

Next month will see me preparing for the Byron Bay Writer's Festival where I'm sure I'll be left craving salt water and plenty of solar energy. Until then happy reading and blessed power to the pen! Warm regards, Yvette.

To contact the Black Words team member in your region with your publications lists and biography / author photo for indexing or updating the dataset:

Elizabeth Hodgson at University of Wollongong: ehodgson@uow.edu.au
Yvette Holt at University of QLD: y.holt@uq.edu.au
Yaritji Green at Flinders University: yaritji.green@flinders.edu.au

For other regions and general enquiries:
Email:
info-austlit@austlit.edu.au
Fax: (+61) 07 3365 7930
Mail: Content Manager
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
Duhig Building Level 7
The University of Queensland
Brisbane Qld 4072
AUSTRALIA

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