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About BlackWords

(Status : Public)
Coordinated by BlackWords Team
  • AustLit contains over 100,000 records with direct access to full text and other digital content. We link to online publications and have an active publishing and digitisation strategy.

    Records that have a 'Read Online' button at the top indicates the item is available to read immediately.  Find more information about what is available in full text here

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  • Access Full Text

    Primary Sources:

    BlackWords poetry: a list of poems by BlackWords writers, including the full text of the poem/s.

    BlackWords short stories: a list of short stories by BlackWords writers, including the full text of the story/ies.

    BlackWords film / television: the content available for film and television varies from the full work to curated clips via the National Film and Sound Archive.

    See also 

    Picture Books 

    Dreaming Story

    Indigenous story


    Secondary Sources:

    The BlackWords Essays: a collection of essays produced for teachers, students, researchers, and readers by Dr Anita Heiss.

    The BlackWords Interviews: a collection of twenty interviews with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers, carried out in late 2013.

    Courting Blakness : Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University: a rich resource of material exploring the ways that art can challenge and make us think about knowledge, history, story. Includes essays, articles, video, and images.

    The BlackWords Symposium: a collection of essays by leading Indigenous writers published by the Journal for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature in 2014.

    Full-text criticism (1): a list of critical works by BlackWords writers, available in full text via AustLit.

    Full-text criticism (2): a list of critical works about BlackWords writers and works, available in full text via AustLit.


    View all BlackWords full text


    Or, through Advanced Search you can search for full text and online content by limiting your search results to items available in full text and use your own keywords. 

    These search result include works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander subject matter as well as those by Indigenous Australians.

    * Click on the 'Read Online' button at the top of records to read immediately.

  • More examples of full text available through BlackWords

  • Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages - Stories for Children in Language

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    This image has been sourced from online.

    'The Living Archive of Aboriginal Language is a digital archive of endangered literature in Australian Indigenous languages from around the Northern Territory.' This archive connects to the people and communities where the literature was created, allowing for collaborative research work with Indigenous authorities and communities.

    Clicking on the website's map to enter the archive, opens hundreds of items in 25 languages from all over the Northern Territory. The Website gives comprehensive instructions on the use of the site for Linguists, Communities, teachers, and students and/or researchers.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Growing up Indigenous in Australia / Kerry Kilner (Ed.) (2018)

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    This collection of autobiographical short stories captures the experience of growing up in Australia as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person. The authors range in age from young adults to older women and men but common to all of their experience is resilience and respect. The stories are published by BlackWords as a result of an overwhelming volume of stories submitted to Black Inc. for consideration in a print collection entitled Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Professor Anita Heiss.

    (...more)
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  • In Conversation with BlackWords / Interviews by Anita Heiss (2014)

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    In late 2013 Dr Anita Heiss sent a series of questions to contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. The responses she received are at times funny, sad, moving, and always deeply insightful. Universally an important piece of advice was to 'Read, read, read' if you want to write. As an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, Anita was very happy to see that advice coming from some of Australia's most admired and read authors.

    In 2014, BlackWords published a series of interviews conducted by Dr Anita Heiss with prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

    (...more)
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