Dot West , is an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

screenwriter.

Education

West qualified with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies in 1998.

Career

West is a freelance

scriptwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

, accredited trainer and consultant, and also serves on

Screenwest Screenwest is Western Australia's screen funding and development organisation, working in partnership with the screen industry to develop, support and promote film, television and digital media production in Western Australia. Screenwest receives ...

's Industry Advisory Group and WA's Screen Industry Diversity and Inclusion leadership group. West has served as a board member in various organisations including the Inaugural Vice Chairperson of

NITV National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the half-hourly nightly ''NITV News'' ...

, Screenwest,

Australian International Documentary Conference The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) is an Australian conference for the promotion of documentary, factual and unscripted screen content, regarded as one of two major national conferences for filmmakers. History First esta ...

, the

National Indigenous Radio Service The National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS) is a satellite program feed available in Australia to Indigenous and non-Indigenous community radio stations. NIRS provides targeted and specialist programming for and by Australia's Aboriginal and T ...

. West is a non-Executive Director of SBS, Director of Goolarri Media Enterprises and Ramu Productions in Broome and the Chairperson of

First Nations Media Australia First Nations Media Australia (FNMA), formerly Indigenous Remote Communications Association (IRCA), is the national peak body for Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander not-for-profit broadcasting, media and communications. The Indige ...

. In 1993, West delivered one of the annual series of

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

Boyer Lectures The Boyer Lectures are a series of talks by prominent Australians, presenting ideas on major social, scientific or cultural issues, and broadcast on ABC Radio National. The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commis ...

called "Voices of the Land".

Personal

Dot West was born Dorothy Henry, a

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

woman from Western Australia's south west.

Honours and awards

* 2005 Tudawali Award * 2008 WASA for "Outstanding Contribution to the WA Screen Industry" * 2014 Honorary Doctorate from

Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology (often simply called Swinburne) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne to serve those without access ...

* 2009

AWGIE Award The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967. The awards are judged by over 50 writers, most of whom are previo ...

for her work on '' The Circuit'' * 2019 First Nations Media Lifetime Achievement Award

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Dot Living people Australian screenwriters Australian women screenwriters Noongar people Year of birth missing (living people)