Numerous

Indigenous Australians 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 ...

are notable for their contributions to Australian literature and journalism.

Indigenous Australian literature Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. While a letter written by Bennelong to Governor Arthur Phillip in 1796 is the first ...

includes fiction, plays, letters, essays and other works.

Literature

* Faith Bandler — activist and novelist *

Larissa Behrendt Larissa Yasmin Behrendt (born 1969) is an Australian legal academic, writer, filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate. she is a professor of law and director of research and academic programs at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education ...

— activist, lawyer and novelist *

Lisa Bellear Lisa (Marie) Bellear (2 May 1961 in Melbourne, Victoria – 5 July 2006 in Melbourne) was an Indigenous Australian poet, photographer, activist, spokeswoman, dramatist, comedian and broadcaster. She was a Goenpul woman of the Noonuccal people o ...

— dramatist and poet *

Charmaine Bennell Charmaine Bennell is a Noongar author and illustrator from Western Australia. Her published books are written in the Noongar language, the language of Indigenous Australians in the South West of Western Australia. She is the daughter of Glen and P ...

— children's fiction * Iris Burgoyne — autobiographer * Burnum Burnum — writer and educator, tireless proponent of reconciliation * Ken Canning — poet and activist * Mary Carmel Charles — children's fiction *

Claire G. Coleman Claire G. Coleman (born 1974) is a Wirlomin-Noongar people, Noongar-Australian writer and poet, whose 2017 debut novel, ''Terra Nullius (Coleman book), Terra Nullius'' won the Norma K. Hemming, Norma K Hemming Award. The first draft of resulted ...

— writer and poet * Jack Davis — poet and playwright *

Wesley Enoch Wesley James Enoch (born 1969) is an Australian playwright and artistic director. He is especially known for ''The 7 Stages of Grieving'', co-written with Deborah Mailman. He was artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company from mid-2 ...

— playwright, director *

Lionel Fogarty Lionel Fogarty (born 1958), also published as Lionel Lacey, is an Indigenous Australian poet and political activist. Early life Fogarty was born in 1958 on an Aboriginal reserve at Barambah (now called Cherbourg) in Queensland, where he grew up. ...

— poet and activist *

Richard Frankland Richard Joseph Frankland is an Australian playwright, scriptwriter and musician. He is an Aboriginal Australian of Gunditjmara origin from Victoria. He has worked significantly for the Aboriginal Australian cause. Biography Richard J. Frank ...

— playwright, scriptwriter and musician * Kevin Gilbert — activist, writer, artist * Jane Harrison — playwright *

Ruth Hegarty Ruth Hegarty (born 1929, in Mitchell, Queensland) is an Aboriginal Elder and author. Hegarty is well known for her non-fiction novels that document her personal history as one of the Stolen Generation. Her first book, ''Is That You Ruthie?'', is ...

— writer * Anita Heiss — novelist, poet and children's author * Kate Howarth — writer, memoirist *

Marnie Kennedy Margaret "Marnie" Kennedy (1919 – 30 September 1985) was an Australian writer and domestic servant. Biography The daughter of Rosie Baker, of the Kalkatungu people, and an unknown white stockman (Australia), stockman, she was born on Copper ...

— autobiographer *

Ruby Langford Ginibi Ruby Langford Ginibi (26 January 1934 – 1 October 2011) was an acclaimed Bundjalung author, historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics. Names According to Langford's memoir, ''Don't Take Your Love to Town'', her paren ...

— writer, historian, autobiographer *

Melissa Lucashenko Melissa Lucashenko is an Indigenous Australian writer of adult literary fiction and literary non-fiction, who has also written novels for teenagers. In 2013 at The Walkley Awards, she won the "Feature Writing Long (over 4000 words) Award" for ...

— novelist *

Ray Mancini Ray Mancini (born Raymond Michael Mancino; March 4, 1961), best known as "Boom Boom" Mancini, is an American former professional boxer who competed professionally from 1979 to 1992 and who has since worked as an actor and sports commentator. H ...

— writer, educator *

Philip McLaren Philip McLaren (born 1943) is an Aboriginal Australian author and academic known for literary fiction, detective stories and thrillers. Biography McLaren is an Aboriginal Australian of the Kamilaroi people. Both of his parents, who have some S ...

— author, academic and artist * Olga Miller — historian, artist and author * Sally Morgan — writer *

Mudrooroo Colin Thomas Johnson (21 August 1938 – 20 January 2019), better known by his nom de plume Mudrooroo, was a novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He has been described as one of the most enigmatic literary figures of Australia and his man ...

(Colin Johnson) — poet, author, playwright (note: Johnson's Aboriginality is contested by many) * Big Bill Neidjie – last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language * Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) — poet *

Bruce Pascoe Bruce Pascoe (born 1947) is an Aboriginal Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Since August 2 ...

* Doris Pilkington Garimara *

Ronald Roe Ronald Roe is an Aboriginal Australian writer of Walman Yawuru descent, a Goolarabooloo elder living in Broome, Western Australia. Roe is the Grandson of Paddy Roe and has written extensively on the role that Paddy has had in the protection o ...

— writer * Kim Scott — novelist * Kirli Saunders — author and poet *

Jared Thomas Jared Thomas (born 1976) is an Australian author of children's fiction, playwright and museum curator. Several of his books have been shortlisted for awards, and he has been awarded three writing fellowships. In May 2018 he began a 12-month sec ...

— writer, and arts curator *

Margaret Tucker Margaret Lilardia Tucker MBE (28 March 1904 – 23 August 1996) was an Aboriginal Australian activist and writer who was among the first Aboriginal authors to publish an autobiography, in 1977. Early life Margaret Tucker was born at War ...

— activist and author of ''If Everyone Cared'' (1977), one of the first autobiographies of the Stolen Generations * David Unaipon (1872–1967) — first published Aboriginal author *

James Unaipon James Unaipon, born James Ngunaitponi, (c. 1835 – 1907) was an Australian Indigenous preacher of the Warrawaldie (also spelt Waruwaldi) Lakalinyeri of the Ngarrindjeri. Born James Ngunaitponi, he took the name James Reid in honour of the Sco ...

(1835–1907) — author and preacher *

Ellen van Neerven Ellen van Neerven (born 1990) is an Aboriginal Australian author, educator and editor. They are queer and non-binary. Their first work of fiction, ''Heat and Light'' (2013), won several awards, and in 2019 Van Neerven won the Queensland Premier ...

— novelist and poet * Sam Watson — novelist and filmmaker *

Samuel Wagan Watson Samuel Wagan Watson is a contemporary Indigenous Australian poet. Early life Samuel Wagan Watson was born in Brisbane and is of Mununjali clan, Munanjali and Germanic descent. His father is the novelist and political activist, Sam Watson (act ...

— poet * Herb Wharton — poet and novelist *

Tara June Winch Tara June Winch (born 1983) is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book ''The Yield''. Biography Tara June Winch was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia in 1983. Her father is from the Wi ...

— novelist * Alexis Wright —

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

winning novelist

Music and theatre

* Roger Bennett — playwright * Wayne Blair — television writer, actor and director * Jimmy Chi — composer, musician and playwright *

— playwright, filmmaker, singer, songwriter *

David Page (musician) Roy David Page (1961 – 28 April 2016), known as Dubboo to his close friends, was an Australian composer (he preferred the term "songman") who was the music director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. He was descended from the Nunukul people and th ...

— composer, musician and playwright *

Stephen Page Stephen George Page (born 1965) is an Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He is the current artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company. Page is descended from the Nunukul peopl ...

— film director, choreographer

Journalism

Dan Bourchier Dan Bourchier is an Australian journalist and television presenter, best known for his work at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Sky News Australia. He is currently leading the ABC coverage of the Voice to Parliament as ABC Referendum/Vo ...

Miriam Corowa Miriam Corowa (born 7 February 1975) is an Australian journalist, presenter, producer, and director. Corowa is primarily known for her roles with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS); she was ...

Jeremy Geia Murrumu Walubara Yidindji (born 1974), also known by his former western name Jeremy Geia, is a Yidinji people, Yidindji man, former journalist, and Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal activist. He is the foreign affairs minister of the S ...

Freda Glynn Alfreda "Freda" Glynn (born 24 August 1939), also known as Freda Thornton, is a Kaytetye photographer and media specialist. She is known as co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association Group of Companies, which incorporate ...

Karla Grant Karla Grant is an Australian presenter, producer and journalist for the Special Broadcasting Service, SBS's national Indigenous current affairs program ''Living Black'', focusing on issues concerning Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres ...

— NITV anchor of ''Living Black'' * Stan Grant *

John Newfong John Newfong (3 November 1943 – 30 May 1999) is an Aboriginal Australian journalist and writer. A descendant of the Ngugi people of Moreton Bay, he was the first Aboriginal person to be employed as a journalist in the Mass media in Australi ...

* Rhianna Patrick * Jack Patten

Non-fiction

Frances Bodkin Frances (Fran) Bodkin (born 1937) is an Australian botanist and Dharawal elder. She is the author of ''Encyclopaedia Botanica: The Essential Reference Guide to Native and Exotic Plants in Australia'' (1986). In the 1970s she helped establish the Au ...

* Veronica Gorrie

Essays and academia

* Chelsea Watego — academic and writer

External links

{{Portal, Children's literature
OzLit list of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers
I

Writers A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, plays ...

Indigenous Indigenous Australian literature