Magabala Books is an Indigenous publishing house based in
Broome, Western Australia
Broome, also known as Rubibi by the Yawuru people, is a coastal pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. In the the population was recorded as 14,660. It is the largest town in the Kimberley reg ...
.
It started in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The name ''Magabala'' is a
Yawuru
The Yawuru, also spelt Jawuru, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Language
A Japanese linguist, Hosokawa Kōmei (細川弘明), compiled the first basic dictionary of the Yawuru language in 1988, a ...
,
Karrajari and
Nyulnyul word for the
bush banana. In 1990, Magabala Books became an independent Aboriginal corporation. Magabala's stated objective is "restoring, preserving and maintaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures".
Many prominent Australian Indigenous authors have been published with Magabala Books, including
Anita Heiss
Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her mem ...
,
Ali Cobby Eckermann,
Jimmy Pike
Jimmy Pike (c1940-2002) was a Walmatjarri Aboriginal artist.
Life
Born east of Japingka, an important jila or permanent waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert, he grew up as a hunter-gatherer. Like many of his people he drifted north toward t ...
,
Alexis Wright
Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is a Waanyi (Aboriginal Australian) writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria'' and the 2018 Stella Prize for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" ...
,
Bronwyn Bancroft,
Jack Davis,
Bill Neidjie
Big Bill Neidjie ( – 23 May 2002), nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Ga ...
,
Stephen Hagan,
Jack Davis,
Jimmy Chi
James Ronald Chi (1948 – 26 June 2017) was an Australian composer, musician and playwright. His best known work is the 1990 musical ''Bran Nue Dae'' which was adapted for film in 2009.
Early life
Chi was born in Broome, Western Australia in ...
and
Bruce Pascoe.
The literature ranges from Aboriginal lore, children's books, various picture books, as well as oral history of indigenous culture.
Magabala Books won the small publisher of the year award at the 2020
Australian Book Industry Awards
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". ...
.
Magabala Fellowship
In August 2020 it launched a fellowship, valued at A$10,000, for First Nations writers who have had at least one book published.
Winners
* Tristan Michael Savage – 2021
See also
*
References
External links
*
Broome, Western Australia
Book publishing companies of Australia
Indigenous Australian mass media
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