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The Australian Literature Resource
SEARCH BLACK WORDS NOW or read on for a few tips.
Black Words works by affiliating records within the larger AustLit database to this particular subset. Searches look for matches in only those records identified by the AustLit team as relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers and their works. The 'Scope' field defines the limits of the search. You can use the basic Black Words search screen or design your own search screen by selecting options from the full range of data fields available through the AustLit advanced search function. Select the Black Words subset in the scope field before searching. More help on searching is available here.
The Black Words subset provides options for searching by author, heritage, birth and death dates, titles and types of works, publication dates and publishers. You can also search for works published in Indigenous languages.
Keeping your searches simple is the best way of getting results.
For example: a search for Wiradjuri in the subject field will find a number of poems, including Rayma Johnson's 'Beautiful Young Wiradjuri Woman', a few columns published in newsapers and journals and Stan Grant's autobiography, The Tears of Strangers: A Memoir.
A search for Aboriginal in the heritage field will lead you to over 1000 records for authors identifying an Aboriginal cultural heritage. You can refine that search even further by scrolling through the heritage terms and selecting specific nation or clan names. Hold the Ctrl key to select more than one heritage. Click on the author name to see more.
Similiarly, you can discover more than 20 Torres Strait Islander writers by searching on Torres Strait Islander in the heritage field.
Search Black Words now. Read the AustLit Search Tips to help you get even better results from your searching.