Wednesday 5 September is Indigenous Literacy Day and Readings is donating 10% of funds from books sold in our shops to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). (Find out more here.) This is a great excuse to buy a new book, and we very much encourage you to seek out a story from an Indigenous Australian author.
We’ve compiled some collections of books, music, film and TV from Indigenous Australians – for all ages and all kinds of tastes. You can browse the full collections below.
We’ve also put together a list of some of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female authors whose words and art inspire, challenge and thrill us. We’ve included established and widely acclaimed voices, alongside talented newcomers, to try to encompass the history and the future.
Alexis Wright
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Her books have been published widely overseas, including in China, the US, the UK, Italy, France and Poland. She was recently named the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne. She is also the only author to win both the Miles Franklin Award (in 2007 for Carpentaria) and the Stella Prize (in 2018 for Tracker).
Find Alexis Wright’s books here
Sally Morgan
Sally Morgan was born in Perth, in 1951, and is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of northwest Western Australia. She has published books for both adults and children, including her acclaimed autobiography, My Place. She has established a national reputation as an artist and has works in many private and public collections. Currently, she is a Professor at the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts, the School of Indigenous Studies, at the University of Western Australia.
Find Sally Morgan’s books here
Alison Whittaker
Alison Whittaker is a Gomeroi poet, life writer and essayist from Gunnedah and Tamworth, north-western New South Wales. She now lives in Sydney on Wangal land, where she studies a combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Technology Sydney. Her debut poetry collection Lemons in the Chicken Wire was shortlisted for the Scanlon Prize and was awarded the 2015 State Library of Queensland’s black&write! fellowship.
Alison Whittaker is the author of two poetry collections: Lemons in the Chicken Wire and Blakwork.
Anita Heiss
Dr Anita Heiss is the author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction, poetry, social commentary and travel articles. She is a Lifetime Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW. She currently lives in Brisbane, and divides her time between writing, public speaking, being an ambassador and advocate, and managing the Epic Good Foundation. Her most recent book (as editor) is Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia.
Tori-Jay Mordey
Tori-Jay Mordey was born on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait and is descended from the Meriam and Maluyigal clans. She is inspired by contemporary artists and holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art from Griffith University in Brisbane.
Tori-Jay Mordey is the illustrator of two children’s books: Bakir and Bi (with words from author Jillian Boyd!) and In the City I See.
Ali Cobby Eckermann
Yankunytjatjara/Kokatha poet Ali Cobby Eckermann is the author of seven books, including the verse novel Ruby Moonlight, and the poetry collections Inside My Mother, and the memoir Too Afraid to Cry. In 2017 she was awarded Yale University’s prestigious Windham Campbell Prize in Poetry.
Find Ali Cobby Eckermann’s books here
Claire G. Coleman
Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Born in Perth, away from her ancestral country she has lived most of her life in Victoria and most of that in and around Melbourne. She writes fiction, essays and poetry while (mostly) traveling around the continent now called Australia in a ragged caravan.
Claire G. Coleman is the author of the award-winning novel, Terra Nullius.
Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko is an acclaimed Australian writer of Goorie and European heritage. Since 1997 Melissa has been widely published as an award-winning novelist, essayist and short story writer. Her novel, Mullumbimby, was the winner of the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing, and her latest book is Too Much Lip.
Find Melissa Lucashenko’s books here
Ellen van Neerven
Ellen van Neerven is a writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. Her first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. In 2015, she received the Express Media Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Young Person in Literary Arts, and in 2017, the Queensland Writers Centre Johnno Award.
Ellen van Neerven is the author of an award-winning collection of stories, Heat and Light, and a poetry collection, Comfort Food.
Bronwyn Bancroft
Visual artist Bronwyn Bancroft is a Djanbun clan member of the Bundjalung Nation. In a career spanning over three decades, Bronwyn has participated in hundreds of exhibitions, both solo and group, within Australia and overseas, and her work has been acquired by major art institutions nation- and worldwide. She has illustrated and/or written 40 books, has received the Dromkeen Medal for her contribution to Australian Literature, and in 2016 was the Australian Finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award (Illustrator).
Find Bronwyn Bancroft’s books here
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal author, illustrator and law academic who works at the University of Western Australia. She comes from the Palyku people whose traditional homeland lies in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Ambelin is the author and illustrator of a number of picture books and novels for teenagers, and her books have been published in the United States, South Korea and China.
Find Ambelin Kwaymullina’s books here
Tara June Winch
Tara June Winch is an Australian writer based in France and Australia, and is of Wiradjuri, Afghan, and English heritage. She has written essay, short fiction and memoir for various international and Australian publications and anthologies. Her first novel, Swallow The Air, won numerous literary awards and in 2009 she was awarded the International Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award that saw her work under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.
Tara June Winch is the author of two critically acclaimed works of fiction: Swallow The Air and After The Carnage.
You can find more reading suggestions by browsing our collections below, and you can read more about the work done by ILF here.
