Read First Nations stories this NAIDOC week
NAIDOC week started this Sunday, making it the perfect time to celebrate the culture, legacy and ongoing contributions of Australia's First Nations peoples. The theme for 2024 is 'Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud' in order to honour the enduring strength and vitality of First Nations culture – fire is a symbol of connection to Country, to each other, and to the rich tapestry of traditions that define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
These books all proudly tell first-hand stories from First Nations Australians, with subjects spanning the 1800s to present-day, and exploring the interesection of cultural identities with gender, class and sexuality. For more recommendations, explore our online collections, or visit our shops for the top picks from our booksellers. During NAIDOC week and beyond, we're always ready to help readers discover great titles from First Nations writers.
Fiction
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray River of Dreams by Anita Heiss
From our staff review: 'Based on true events, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray centres on the life of Wagadhaany and her life by the powerful and beautiful Murrumbidgee River. While this novel is essentially a story of romance, it also encapsulates an enduring love of Country. When Wagadhaany meets Wiradjuri stockman Yindyamarra (Yindy) they dream of a life away from ‘White Man’s Law’ . . . Along the riverbanks we are privy to their dreams and aspirations. We are shown how life was and how it could have remained.
Heiss’s writing here is different to her past work, and she wants readers to take away some important lessons. This novel is an epic depiction of First People’s lives before and during white colonisers’ brutality. By recalling the past against a backdrop of romance, Heiss’s writing elicits a gut-wrenching response; this is what an excellent writer can do with their stories.'
Don't forget Anita Heiss' contemporary romcoms Manhattan Dreaming and Not Meeting Mr Right, as well as her new novel, Dirrayawadha Rise Up, which is due for publication on 31st July.
The Visitors by Jane Harrison
From our staff review: 'On the 26th of January 1788, a fleet of 11 British ships sailed into Sydney Harbour. From the British side, the arrival is well documented. What we don’t really know is what was the reaction of the people who inhabited the land prior to the arrival. Muruwari writer Jane Harrison imagines what might have happened on that fateful day in her new novel, The Visitors, which is the powerful adaptation of her acclaimed play of the same name.
As the first ships arrive, the call goes out for a gathering of the elders of the various clans in the area to plan a response to the visitors . . . Over the course of the day, the elders argue as more ships arrive. Harrison imagines the lives of the different elders and the communities they represent and presents an image of a sophisticated and complex society . . . The Visitors is a masterful, thought-provoking book.'
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
Alexis Wright's contemporary Australian classic, Carpentaria, which won the Miles Franklin Award in 2007, was re-released last year in a stunning new edition designed by Jenny Grigg.
Carpentaria is an epic of the Gulf country of north-western Queensland. Its portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, leader of the Westend Pricklebush people, and its battles with old Joseph Midnight’s renegade Eastend mob 2007 on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. Wright’s storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce.
And don't miss Wright's most recent novel, Praiseworthy, which won the 2024 Stella Prize earlier this year!
After Story by Larissa Behrendt
From our staff review: 'Told from mother-daughter alternating perspectives, After Story is a powerful meditation on family, culture, storytelling and the lingering effects of trauma and grief. Jasmine, an avid reader from childhood, has pursued an academic and professional life in the city that has left her feeling distanced from her mum and remaining sister. Della is still reeling from the recent death of Jimmy, her ex-partner and the father of her daughters. Both women hope their literary tour of England will bring them closer together, but at first it only widens the space between them.
Travel brings home into relief. Learning about the troubled lives of British writers underscores their own complicated relationships. Visiting historical sites causes both Jasmine and Della to muse on the depth and extent of Aboriginal living culture and the injustices and crimes of Australian history.'
Women & Children by Tony Birch
From our staff review: 'Lovely, mischievous Joe Cluny is living in 1960s Melbourne with his older sister, Ruby, and their mother, Marion. Ruby has gone away to the country for a few weeks, and Joe must spend his days with his grandfather, Charlie (‘Char’), cleaning the eclectic collection of objects Charlie has acquired. Everything is normal, until Joe’s aunt, Oona, appears on the doorstep – bruised and in need. Joe knows Marion and Oona need help, yet no one will give it to them.
Tony Birch crafts a story that perfectly encapsulates the innocence of childhood, and the creeping recognition of how the world ignores the voices of women and girls. Birch takes care to give us a loving, inquisitive, uncertain boy in the form of Joe; one that Birch uses to exemplify the phase before some boys become ‘damaged men’ . . . Women & Children is a bloody reminder that a loving family will fight tooth and nail to see you safe, and Birch is adamant we understand how entirely unacceptable ignorance – or complacency – is.'
Tony Birch is a prolific writer, with several award winning books worth exploring too.
Bitin' Back by Vivienne Cleven
First published in 2001, this new edition of Bitin' Back is part of UQP's First Nations Classics collection, which showcases brilliant, timeless books that are as engaging and relevant today as they were on first publication. Bitin' Back is a rollicking comic novel that nimbly blends the realities of small town prejudice and racial intolerance.
When the Blackouts' star player Nevil Dooley wakes one morning to don a frock and 'eyeshada', his mother's idle days at the bingo hall are gone forever. Mystified and clueless, single parent Mavis takes to bush-cunning and fast footwork to unravel the mystery behind this sudden change of face.
Checkout the full First Nations Classics collection, which includes memoir, novels, short stories and poetry.
Poetry
Refugia by Elfie Shiosaki
Refugia is an unparalleled work of vision and political fury from Noongar and Yawuru poet and scholar Elfie Shiosaki. Inspired by the beeliar (Swan River) and the NASA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of science, this collection draws on colonial archives to contest the occupation of Noongar Country.
As the bicentennial year of the colony of Western Australia approaches, Shiosaki looks to the stars and back to the earth to make sense of memory and the afterlife of imperial violence.
How to Make a Basket by Jazz Money
From our staff review: 'Jazz Money won the 2020 David Unaipon Award for her collection How to Make a Basket, and it’s easy to see why: this is an absolutely stunning collection of poetry . . . Throughout the collection, I was reminded of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poetry – both in its voice of protest and in its sense of leadership and community. Readers who have enjoyed Evelyn Araluen and Alison Whittaker’s work will be similarly impressed with this collection.'
Jazz Money is a poet to return to again and again. Her second book of poetry, mark the dawn, is due for publication on 30th July.
She Is the Earth by Ali Cobby Eckermann
She Is the Earth is the luminous new verse novel from celebrated poet Ali Cobby Eckermann. It charts a journey through grief and celebrates the healing power of Country. We follow Eckermann’s soft footfalls in the open (but far from empty) spaces between earth and sky; from sandstone to wetlands, from plains to mountain ranges.
Eckermann’s writing soars in this meditative and transformative piece. Soaked in lightness and dark, history and dreaming, her words will move you, shake you, devastate you and uplift you.
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
From our staff review: 'I cannot speak highly enough of contemporary Australian poetry, and Evelyn Araluen’s debut collection Dropbear is no exception . . . As I read through the poems in this debut, the final line of the opening poem stayed with me: ‘got something for you to swallow’. The whole collection for me was about swallowing and sitting with the truths that Araluen explores – the horror and continuing messiness of colonisation. I felt the collection was also Araluen digesting her own feelings about this land and the complexity of her position within it as a descendant of the Bundjalung Nation.'
