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First Word Opening Address

Wed 10 May 2023

Melanie Saward + Samantha Faulkner

Queensland Terrace, slq

Special Event / Free event

SPE008

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 90 minutes

First Word formally opens the Brisbane Writers Festival each year. To celebrate the vibrant tradition of Australia's first storytellers, the session showcases a keynote speech by an eminent First Nations writer. In 2023, that writer is the wonderful Samantha Faulkner, who is the author of Life Blong Ali Drummond, and the editor of Pamle: Torres Strait Islanders in Canberra and the upcoming Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australi.

As part of the First Word formalities, the audience will also hear from select festival figures and VIPS, and fromauthor and editor Melanie Saward, who will deliver a short reading from her piece for BWF's 60th anniversary book.

Presented by The University of Queensland

Presented by

The University of Queensland

#Artists

Melanie Saward

Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples. She is a writer, editor, and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich). Her writing has been published in Flock, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, and New Australian Fiction 2019 and she is the managing editor of Djed Press.

Samantha Faulkner

Samantha is a Torres Strait Islander (Badu and Moa Islands) and Aboriginal (Wuthathi/Yadhaigana) woman. She is the author of Life Blong Ali Drummond and editor of Pamle: Torres Strait Islanders in Canberra. She has poetry and short stories published nationally and internationally and is the Treasurer, First Nations Australia Writers Network and Us Mob Writing Group. She is currently editing Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia, due for publication by Black Inc. in 2024.