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Indigenous publishing makes a splash
Issue 31 - 14 May 2003
Indigenous publishing makes a splash
Indigenous writers, publishers and oral historians will have a stronger-than-ever presence at the 2003 Sydney Writers’ Festival (19-25 May).
Aboriginal Studies Press (ASP), the publishing arm of AIATSIS, will attend the Festival in force - launching four new titles and one revised work, while ASP authors will participate in panel discussions and forums.
“Our presence at the Festival will be hard to miss,” said Professor Mick Dodson, AIATSIS Chairperson.
“There’ll be a group of four MakMak women from the Top End, two authors on sports history, two writers on Indigenous health policy and practice, the author of a frank and fearless account of the politics behind the publishing of Indigenous literature and our own energetic Managing Editor, Sandra Phillips.
“ASP has a long history of publishing works ranging from culture, history and biographies to art and social policy. There’s fiction and poetry, books for children and audio CDs, CD-ROMs and videos. Among its best sellers are The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia and Aboriginal Australia Wall Map.
“The Sydney Writers’ Festival gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the depth of our catalogue to a wide audience.”
The books for launch at the Festival are:
• Dhuuluu-Yala (To Talk Straight) Publishing Aboriginal Literature in Australia by Dr Anita M. Heiss, a Sydney-based Wiradjuri author, poet, activist and social commentator.
• Counting, Health and Identity: a history of Indigenous health and demography in Western Australia and Queensland 1900-1940 by Dr Gordon Briscoe, a Research Fellow in the new Centre for Australian Indigenous History at ANU.
• Addictions and Healing in Aboriginal Country by Gregory Phillips, a Waanyi man from north west Qld, now based in Melbourne, to coordinate a national project on the inclusion of Indigenous health in core medical curricula.
• Country of the Heart - An Indigenous Australian Homeland is an account of the culture and history of the MakMak people of the Waigat river floodplains, as told to Deborah Bird Rose by Linda Ford, Nancy Daiyi, Kathy Deveraux, Margaret Daiyi and April Bright, with photographs by Sharon D’Amico.
Due for re-release is Aboriginal Stars of the Turf - Jockeys of Australian Racing History, a celebration of the Indigenous involvement in horse racing by John Maynard, the son of Aboriginal jockey Merv Maynard.
ASP authors will participate in panel discussions on Indigenous sporting heroes, the place of country in belonging, the role for non-Indigenous Australians in Indigenous activism and whether politics is killing black Australia.
ASP (Canberra) is one third of the “ABC of Indigenous publishing”, which includes IAD Press (Alice Springs) and Magabala Books (Broome). Ms Phillips will join representatives of the other two publishing houses in the Indigenous Publishers’ Forum on Sunday 25 May.
For the full program of the 2003 Sydney Writers’ Festival log on to www.swf.org.au
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