Why I'm excited about Blak & Bright
Bookseller Neika Lehman tells us why she’s so excited for the Blak & Bright festival (18 – 21 February), and shares some reading recommendations.
As a Australian bookseller who happens to be Indigenous, and who also happens to have a major crush on fresh new writing borne of this continent – especially those which resist the easy definitions of what Australian Literature is – I couldn’t be more enthused by this new Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival
The voices of Indigenous Australia are powerful and diverse, and Blak & Bright’s extensive line-up with over 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from all over Australia, squeezed into the four-day program (18 – 21 February), is a sure way for readers to seek out inspiration for their top picks this year. If you are interested in the current climate of contemporary Australian writing, I would not miss this opportunity to hear from the biggest and emerging Blak voices today, whether novelist, poet, comedian or playwright. I’m personally looking forward to busting some stereotypes with the younger generations and getting to know real history by listening in on our living books (AKA our elders).
In preparation for this inaugural event, here’s some literary recommendations from the festival line-up.
Anita Heiss writes across popular fiction, poetry, children’s books and political biography. Start with Am I Black Enough for You?, her compelling memoir about her experiences as an urban-based high achieving Aboriginal woman. Heiss will be providing the opening address for the festival and sharing 20 good reasons to read blak. Accompanying her will be Indigenous actors Pauline Wyman and Greg Fryer, reading excerpts from 20 Blak books. If you don’t make it to anything else, bring along your notepad and get in the know.
Bruce Pascoe is another prolific author writing across a range of genres. His non-fiction work, Dark Emu, puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for precolonial Aboriginal Australians, and is well worth your time. Pascoe is a keynote speaker at the festival and alongside playwright and actor Tony Briggs, will discuss his most urgent stories in Big Stories, Big Genres.
Two final recommendations: Kate Howarth’s moving memoir Settling Day, and Ellen van Neerven’s award-winning short story collection Heat and Light. Both these authors are appearing at Sistas Are Doing It…, where they will be discussing building and maintaining careers as Indigenous writers along with playwright and actor Tammy Anderson.
