AustLit
Alexis Wright, activist and award-winning writer, is from the Waanji people from the highlands of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. After her father, a white cattleman, died when she was five, she grew up with her mother and grandmother in Cloncurry, Queensland. She has worked extensively in government departments and Aboriginal agencies across four Australian states and territories as a professional manager, educator, researcher, and writer.
Wright was coordinator of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Constitutional Convention in 1993 and wrote 'Aboriginal Self Government' for Land Rights News, later quoted in full in Henry Reynolds's Aboriginal Sovereignty (1996). Her involvement as a writer and an activist in many Aboriginal organisations and campaigns has included work on mining, publications, fund raising, and land rights both in Australia and overseas.
Besides being published widely in magazines and journals, Wright has edited Take Power Like this Old Man Here, an anthology of writings on the history of the land rights movement in Central Australia, which she edited for the Central Land Council. She has also written Grog War (1997) a book dedicated to the achievements of the traditional Aboriginal Elders of Tennant Creek in their war against alcohol.
From November 2017 until June 2022, Wright held the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.
Her first novel, Plains of Promise (1997), was nominated for national and international literary awards. However, it was her second novel, Carpentaria that made Wright a figure in world literature, when she won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2007. Previously, this work had been rejected by every major publisher in Australia until published by Giramondo in 2006. Subsequently, Carpentaria was nominated for and won five national literary awards and has been re-published and translated in the United States and in Europe. Wright’s third novel, The Swan Book (2013), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin.
Her first novel, Plains of Promise (1997), was nominated for national and international literary awards. However, it was her second novel, Carpentaria that made Wright a figure in world literature, when she won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2007. Previously, this work had been rejected by every major publisher in Australia until published by Giramondo in 2006. Subsequently, Carpentaria was nominated for and won five national literary awards and has been re-published and translated in the United States and in Europe. Wright’s third novel, The Swan Book (2013), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin.
Wright has participated in many writers' festivals, conferences, readings and writers workshops in both Australia and overseas, and has been community writer-in-residence for the Central Land Council. Although Wright received a rudimentary education while at school, she has completed degrees in social studies, media and creative writing at universities in Adelaide and Melbourne, and has been a Distinguished Research Fellow at The Writing & Society Research Centre, University of Western Sydney. In November 2017, she was appointed as the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.
Wright's fourth novel, Praiseworthy, was AustLit's 1,000,000th record, and won the Fiction Book Award at the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards. Wright is also a renowned essayist, having written multiple essays on Indigenous sovereignty, story-telling and climate change.
Jennifer Martiniello is an award winning poet, writer, visual artist and academic of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. Her father was Richard Longmore (1914-1985), born Richard Chong at Oodnadatta, South Australia. Martiniello spent a period in the Australian navy and has lectured in various areas of education at the Canberra Institute of Technology and the University of Canberra. Her honours thesis in the Faculty of Arts, ANU was entitled 'Australian Women's Auto-Portraiture: 1970s-1980s' (1991).
Martiniello has worked extensively with Indigenous Australian communities and youth in regional New South Wales and Victoria. In 2005 she was the public officer of the Indigenous Writers Support Group in Canberra, Indigenous Advisor on Youth Programs for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in Australia for the Australian Capital Territory Advisory Committee, a member of the Advisory Committee of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australian National University and a member of the Publishing Advisory Committee of Aboriginal Studies Press at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
Martiniello edited Black Lives, Rainbow Visions: Indigenous Sitings in the Creative Arts (1999), a resource directory of Indigenous peoples working in the contemporary visual, literary and performing arts in the Australian Capital Territory. In 2002 she received an ACT Creative Arts Fellowship to complete her novel Blossoms of the Mulga, to illustrate her children's book Fish and Rainbow and to take up residencies at Varuna Writers' Centre and at Hedgebrook Women Writer's Retreat in Seattle, USA. She was also coordinating editor for issue one of New Dreamings: Indigenous Youth Magazine, 2002. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, Polish and Arabic.
Eileen Morgan is an Elder of the Yuin people. She is the sister of Guboo Ted Thomas. She has lived most of her life in the Wallaga Lake area of southern New South Wales. Morgan's father taught her the bush medicine from her country. Her people's totem is the black duck from the Wallaga Lake area.
While Morgan was a young child, her family lived in Tilba Tilba, New South Wales. Her mother decided that Morgan and her siblings would receive some education, so the family moved to Wallaga Lake. Morgan stayed in school until she was fifteen, when she started work as a domestic helper in people's homes.
Morgan's father met Rex Morgan at Cummeragunja. He offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Rex. Morgan and Rex were married on the 20th January, 1940. Morgan's husband did not allow her to work after he found her scrubbing the floors; he told her he would work and she would never have to do anything like that again. They were still married when Rex passed away thirty-four years later.
A few months after Morgan's husband death, she began writing the stories of her life and her family. She wanted to record her culture and the stories before they were forgotten so that it could be handed down to her future generations. These stories eventually were published as The Calling of the Spirits by Australian Studies Press.
[Source: Morgan, E. The Calling of the Spirits, Australian Studies Press, 1994]
Simon's story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation, edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).
Poet of Chinese and Wiradjuri family. In 2018, she was based in Newcastle where she facilitated a group of writers with disability. (Shying is, to quote her biography in Verity La, 'disabled by a degenerative disease'.)
Source: Verity La.
Eugenia Flynn is a Chinese Malaysian, Tiwi, Larrakia and Muslim woman, based in Melbourne (as at 2018). She works with Indigenous, refugee, asylum-seeker and migrant communities through arts and culture to create change.
In addition to writing literary non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, Flynn runs the blog Black Thoughts Live Here.
Composer, musician, and playwright.
Born in Broome in 1948 to a Bardi Aboriginal mother with Scottish heritage and a Broome born father whose parents were Chinese and Japanese, Jimmy Chi embodies his hometown's cultural diversity. Although he left Broome to undertake an engineering degree in Perth, the cultural dislocation caused him to abandon his studies to return home. Broome's blend of cultural and creative influences was the right environment for Chi. In this respect, they played a significant role in nurturing a rich artistic society where music was the dominant expression. Indeed, by the late 1970s the town had developed a distinctive style which became known as the 'Broome Sound'. In 1981 Chi and several other musicians from Broome formed the band Kuckles in Adelaide while they studied at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM). After recording an audition tape titled Milliya Rumarra (1982), the band won a trip to Germany to perform at the Third Annual International Cologne Song Festival in 1982.
The band returned to Broome and with Chi (as author) later became the inspirational heart and creative drive behind the acclaimed stage musical Bran Nue Dae. A hit at the 1990 Festival of Perth, the musical eventually toured Australia winning numerous awards (including the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award). Bran Nue Dae, which celebrates family, forgiveness and reconciliation, has not only become one of Australia's most successful musicals but also brought acclaim for many Aboriginal artists including Ernie Dingo, Josie Ningali Lawford and Leah Purcell, as well as helping to play an instrumental role in the formation of the Black Swan Theatre. Its success led Chi to creating a second musical Corrugation Road, which similarly toured Australia and broke box office records. With Corrugation Road Chi has sought to break down the ignorance surrounding mental health, abuse, sexuality and religion through the use of humour and optimism.
Jimmy Chi's dedication to Australian artistic endeavour and justice for Indigenous people has seen him recognised a number of prestigious awards. He has been honoured by the State of Western Australia as a Living Treasure and the Australian federal Government awarded him the Centenary Medal for his contribution to Australian society. Chi, who is the patron of SANE Australia, was also presented with the Red Ochre Award at a ceremony in Broome in 1997.
Australian Writing and Rock Music affiliation: vocals.
Tex Camfoo was born at Mainoru Station in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. He was named Harry Camfoo after his father. Tex's totem is the Left Hand Kangaroo. He lived with his mother and step-father; they mainly lived off the land but did collect rations from stations. When he was five, his step-father decided it was time for him to begin his education, so Tex and his family moved to Roper Bar for the school there. Two to three years later, Tex was taken to be educated on Groote Eylandt, a small island near the Arnhem coastline where all the 'half caste' children were taken.
At Groote Eylandt, the Reverend Warren decided to change Camfoo's name because there were too many boys named Harry. From then on Harry (Tex) was now called Jimmy Camfoo. While on Groote, Tex plucked a mango from a tree. For his punishment a chain was attached to his leg at night and he was only released to go to school or eat. Eventually Tex along with many other children was allowed to go back to mainland Australia to Roper Mission. His mother was waiting for him but he was unable to recognise her, and ran away when she tried to greet him.
While Tex lived at Roper Mission, his mother would come visit him and take him bush tucker hunting. A couple of times Tex ran away from the mission, but stopped running away after he was threatened that he would be taken to Darwin. In 1940 there was a flood that destroyed Roper Mission; the mission was re-established at Ngukurr. Tex often found himself in trouble with the missionaries because he was not fed enough so he used to steal food.
When World War Two started, Tex left Ngukurr to hitch-hike to Mataranka but when he got to Elsey Station he was told that Mataranka was overflowing with Army personnel. He stayed in Elsey and found work from Harry Giles but then moved on to do stock work for George Conway at Beswick. While at Beswick, Tex was asked if he wanted to learn carpentry, which he did for three years at Mainoru Station, but he felt he would rather work with horses and went back to Beswick. It was about this time Tex (who was still named Jimmy) decided to change his name to Tex James Camfoo, so he got the parson at Ngukurr to baptise him down at the reservoir.
Beswick was sold to the Department of Native Affairs, and Tex found he did not get along with the head stockman so he left to do droving camps for a couple of years. After droving, he moved to Katherine to work there.
Tex began living with an Indigenous woman who after she married Tex came to be called Nelly Camfoo (q.v.) but her maiden name was not recorded recorded by the authorities at the time. When Tex decided to marry Nelly, he discovered that by law he was classified as European due to his Chinese heritage, which meant he could not have relations with or marry Nelly unless he had permission. Tex spent six months in jail for unlawful relations with an Indigenous woman. However, he later did marry Nelly and they both lived and worked on Mainoru until the owner died and his daughter sold the property.
The new owners of Mainoru were not as generous as the previous owners. Tex and his wife moved from Mainoru doing work at different stations, until he was asked to be a manager at Gulperan Pastoral Company. He worked there for a while but became disappointed in his job after he found the men working under him were not doing their jobs properly. Tex left Gulperan and found work back on Mainoru Station.
Source: Love against the Law: The Autobiographies of Tex and Nelly Camfoo recorded and edited by Gillian Cowlishaw, 2000
She was the recipient of the CAL Award for Three Dimensional Works at the 2011 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards.
She holds a Bachelor of Education-Nyerna Studies from the University of Victoria where she has lectured at Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit, and a Post Graduate Diploma & Masters in Community Cultural Development from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Jaquim Duggan is an Indigenous writer. He has studied at Deakin University.
'Born on the banks of the Murray River at Albury NSW, Kerri-Lee is a proud Bindal Juru & KOA Murri woman who is also of Chinese and Manx heritage (Isle of Man). Kerri-Lee is a Broadcast Journalist specialising in Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander content and has enjoyed working in many in different and diverse media roles including in the role of Radio Presenter, Producer & Reporter, ABC Speaking Out – Online Producer, Film Maker, Photographer, Writer and Professional Voiceover Artist.' (Source: Blak & Bright website)
Elizabeth Wallace was born at Angledool Aboriginal Mission. One of her grandfathers was a boundary rider from China. Wallace's family was moved to Brewarrina Mission but her brother and sister were taken away to Cootamundra Home and she did not see them again until she was much older. Wallace's family were moved to Gingie, where she received some schooling but spent most of her time helping the manager's children with their reading and writing. When Wallace was fourteen she moved with her family to Dungalear and commenced work in the domestic services.
(Main source: Zagar, C., Goodbye Riverbank: The Barwon-Namoi People tell their story, Magabala Books, 2000).
'Jasmin Herro is a social entrepreneur and business executive, owning and operating several successful businesses over the past two decades. She is a highly skilled practicing artist and a staunch advocate for diversity and inclusion. Born in Cairns, North Queensland, to a Torres Strait Islander mother descending from Mer (Murray) Island and a Chinese father. Jasmin is the CEO and founder of Outback Global Australia a multi award winning Indigenous company and the co-founder and Vice President of Outback Global USA established in 2012 as the first African-American/ Indigenous-Australian certified minority business in the USA. She is also the owner of the first Indigenous premium tea importing company: Outback Tea & Coffee Company. Jasmin is developing a number of social projects in the USA and Australia.
'Jasmin’s most recent project Tjindgarmi was designed as part of a platform to deliver an “End to End” solution for corporate and government procurement specialists, that offered buyers the confidence to engage with an authentic Indigenous business delivering capacity and global reach, showed multiple levels of value with a clear and transparent social outcome. The national pre-launch was conducted as a series of business breakfasts – The New Conversation: “an opportunity to take Indigenous Australia out of CSR and onto the balance sheet.”
'As a registered artist with the Indigenous Art Code Jasmin took the opportunity to create a brand that people could engage with, that had a meaningful story and encouraged an appreciation of the many different styles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia.
'Jasmin's energy and enthusiasm comes from her passion to change the stereotypical thinking about diversity: be it gender, race or sexuality.' (Author's website)
'Jasmin has a Diploma in Musical Theatre from The Dance Factory, Melbourne and in 2002 Jasmin commenced a two year period of further study in Contemporary Dance at NAISDA Dance College, working with Indigenous choreographers such as Vicki Van Hout and Frances Rings. In 2006 Jasmin choreographed, dance and sung in The Migrant Project with Curious Works.
'Jasmin joined Bangarra in 2007. Her career highlights include performing the title role in 2014’s Patyegarang and dancing under the night sky in front of Indigenous rural communities throughout Australia.' (Source : Bangarra website)
Peg Havnen was born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and graduated from James Cook University, Queensland, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
