This year, NAIDOC week is running from 3 – 10 July and focuses the theme of Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!. This year’s theme centres on the ongoing need for sincere and tangible action. By amplifying and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, we ‘can narrow the gap between aspiration and reality, good intent and outcome.’ We recommend reading the full explanation behind the 2022 focus (and exploring how you can become more involved this NAIDOC week) here.

This week – and every week – we want to make space for and show respect to the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In particular, we want to help showcase the amazing work of First Nations creators (past and present) who generously share their stories.

During NAIDOC week, we’ll be highlighting some fantastic published works from First Nations authors. Below we’re recommending four fantastic anthologies.

This All Come Back Now: An Anthology of First Nations Speculative Fiction edited by Mykaela Saunders

The first-ever anthology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speculative fiction - written, curated, edited and designed by blackfellas, for blackfellas and about blackfellas. In these stories, ‘this all come back’: all those things that have been taken from us, that we collectively mourn the loss of, or attempt to recover and revive, as well as those that we thought we’d gotten rid of, that are always returning to haunt and hound us. Some writers summon ancestral spirits from the past, while others look straight down the barrel of potential futures, which always end up curving back around to hold us from behind.

Blacklight: Ten Years of First Nations Storytelling edited by Hannah Donnelly

Blacklight: Ten Years of First Nations Storytelling is a definitive anthology of writing produced entirely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives from Western Sydney and beyond.

​This powerful collection showcases forty-eight short stories, vignettes, poems, essays and artworks which have been developed over the past ten years as part of the nationally renowned literacy movement known as Sweatshop.

Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now edited by Ellen van Neerven

This wide-ranging and captivating anthology showcases both the power of First Nations writing and the satisfaction of a good short story. Curated by award-winning author Ellen van Neerven, Flock roams the landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, bringing together voices from across the generations.

Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss

This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, attempts to showcase as many diverse voices, experiences and stories as possible in order to answer that question. Each account reveals, to some degree, the impacts of invasion and colonisation - on language, on country, on ways of life, and on how people are treated daily in the community, the education system, the workplace and friendship groups.

Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile identities sit alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, with experiences spanning coastal and desert regions, cities and remote communities. All of them speak to the heart - sometimes calling for empathy, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect.

We also highly recommend the anthologies Dear Son: Letters and Reflections from First Nations Fathers and Sons and My Tidda, My Sister: Stories of Strength and Resilience From Australia’s First Women.