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The limits of language
Anita Heiss + Tony Birch + Claire G. Coleman
kuril dhagun, State Library of Queensland
Panel
7119
#Performances
#About the event
Duration: 60 minutes
English may be the lingua franca of the world, but it has its limits in a land where rich Indigenous tongues already abounded. Three leading Aboriginal authors discuss how they have harnessed English to express their stories and created a new and inspiring way to use the language.
#Artists
Anita Heiss
Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 25 books across genres. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central NSW, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland.
Her adult fiction includes Manhattan Dreaming, Paris Dreaming and Tiddas which she adapted for the stage. Her novel Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms was shortlisted for the QLD Literary Awards and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing, was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel (Adult Category) and longlisted for the 2022 Stella Prize.
In 2023, Anita released a children’s book Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) illustrated by Samantha Campbell, and became Publisher of her own imprint, Bundyi Publishing (Simon & Schuster).
In 2024 she released the historical novel Dirrayawadha (Rise Up).
Anita’s latest novel is Red Dust Running.
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is the author of three novels and four short story collections, in 2021 he released two new books, a poetry book, Whisper Songs and a new short story collection, Dark As Last Night. His website is: tony-birch.com
Claire G. Coleman
Claire G. Coleman is a Wirlomin Noongar woman whose ancestral country is on the south coast of Western Australia. Born in Perth she has spent most of her life in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. She has written 3 novels Terra Nullius (2019), The Old Lie (2019), and Enclave and a non-fiction book Lies Damned Lies: A personal exploration of the the impact of colonisation (2021). Her art criticism has been published in Spectrum, Artlink and Art Collector and in exhibition catalogues for NGV, AGSA and NGA and others. Her conceptual/video work Refugium won the Incinerator Art Award in 2021 and she will feature in a number of exhibitions in 2022. She writes novels, poetry, short-fiction, drama and essay and has featured in the Saturday Paper, the Guardian, Meanjin, Australian Poetry and many others. Her short fiction and poetry has been published in multiple anthologies.
#Moderator
Grace Lucas-Pennington
Grace Lucas-Pennington is an Aboriginal (Bundjalung) editor specialising in fiction and poetry. She grew up mostly between northern NSW and the greater Logan/Brisbane area. Grace is the Senior Editor at State Library of Queensland's black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project.
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