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  • Who and Where are the Wiradjuri?

  • Map showing the Wiradjuru boundaries in New South Wales.

    The Wiradjuri nation is the largest cultural footprint in New South Wales, and the second largest group, geographically in Australia.The Wiradjuri people, are known as the 'people of the three rivers' who are originally from the area in Central New South Wales that is bordered by the Lachlan, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee rivers.

    The BlackWords team have so far identified close to one hundred authors who identify as Wiradjuri. Prominent Wiradjuri writers include Kevin Gilbert,Kerry Reed-Gilbert, Anita Heiss, Joy Williams, and Tara June Winch. Some of those writers and their works are listed below. Discover more Wiradjuri writers by choosing 'cultural heritage' in 'Personal Details' in the AustLit's 'Advanced Search'.

  • Autobiography/Biography/Life Stories

  • Windradyne : A Wiradjuri Koorie by Mary Coe

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Web

    A true account of resistance fighter Windradyne of the Wiradjuri Nation. Windradyne was a warrior and a leader who lived in and around the Eastern Murray River area. He is remembered in this book for his fight for land rights and the wellbeing of approximately 12,000 of his people.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • This image is a depiction of a Wiradjuri warrior, thought to be Windradyne.

    Windradyne (c. 1800-1829) was a Wiradjuri resistance leader, who was also known as Saturday, from the upper Macquarie River Region in central-western New South Wales. He was a key protagonist during a period of Aboriginal-settler conflict, known as the 'Bathurst Wars'.

  • Under the Quandong Tree by Minmia

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Web.

    'This book ... is a collection of Minmia's teachings and wisdom. The book is about Traditional teachings of the Lore/law that explains what this land means in every essence. It tells you how to understand your soul journey from the essence of Creation, the dreaming tracks and song lines.

    Source: http://www.kuracca.com/ (Sighted: 24/04/2008)

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • The Tears of Strangers : Memoir by Stan Grant

    image of person or book cover
    Image courtesy of publisher's website.

    'A family memoir charting the political and social changes of Aborigines over the past 40 years. Stan Grant was born in 1963 into the Wiradjuri people - a tribe of warriors who occupied the vast territory of central and southwestern New South Wales. For 100 years the Wiradjuri waged a war against European invasion and settlement. This war has largely been ignored by historians and politicians but will be burnt into the hearts and minds of the Wiradjuri forever. By the time Grant was born, the war against invasion had largely been lost and remnants of the Wiradjuri were scattered among mission camps and the fringes of rural towns.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Wiradjuri Spirit Man by Harry Wedge

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Web.

    Stories behind twenty three paintings by Harry Wedge, topics range from Adam and Eve to Captain Cook, alcohol abuse and religion; Includes a chapter on Harry Wedge's childhood, life on Erambie Mission, Cowra and how he came to be an artist.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • MumShirl by Shirley Perry Smith with the assistance of Bobbi Sykes

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Web.

    'Shirley Smith, better known as MumShirl, tells the story of her life with vigor and clarity. She was born on Erambie Mission in Cowra and has lived and worked in Sydney for most of her life. It is rare for a book to state so matter-of-factly so many incidents of which white Australians should be ashamed. MumShirl combines great insight into humane nature with sympathy for human frailty and a sense of humour. Her life as an Aboriginal, activist and social worker has been full of contrasts: 'we couldn't get served in lots of crummy places in Sydney.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Image by permission of the National Library of Australia.

    Shirley Smith, affectionately known as'MumShirl' had been described as both hero and a saint. She had earned her nickname 'MumShirl' through her visits to the inmates after she was allowed by the Department of Corrective Services access to all prisoners in jails in New South Wales.

  • Wiradjuri Themed Children's Books and Plays

  • You Kids Count Your Shadows : Hairymen and Other Aboriginal Folklore in New South Wales by Frank Povah

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Web.
    'A collection of stories, taken from interviews, which gives an insight into the knowledge and ancient beliefs of the Aboriginal people in NSW.' Source: https://products.schools.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html (Sighted 12/4/2009). (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Yirra and Her Deadly Dog, Demon by Anita Heiss

    Cover image courtesy ABC.
    'Yirra's Mum's sick of vacuuming up fur balls, the neighbours are fed up with having their undies nicked from the clothesline, and her Step-Dad just wants his slippers back.
    'If Yirra doesn't find a dog-trainer soon, she'll have to give her beloved Demon to a new family - one who likes dogs who run and dig a lot. Bursting with energy and madcap fun, Yirra and Her Deadly Dog, Demon gives young readers a contemporary view of urban Indigenous life in Sydney.' (Publisher's blurb)
    (...more)
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    This work was written by Anita Heiss and the students of La Perouse Public School.

  • Gurawang the bandicoot by Gloria Whalan

    Image courtesy of Black Ink Press
    Gurawang the Bandicoot is the fourth in the Grandma's Farm series by Gloria Whalan. (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Novels by Wiradjuri writers

  • Bridge of Triangles by John Muk Muk Burke

    Image courtesy of UQP
    'Chris Leeton is tormented but also sustained by his growing need to cross over the landscape of his Aboriginal ancestors... In the struggle to keep the family together in Sydney's grim commission housing, schoolboy Chris is tender witness to poverty and despair. In time he comes to understand that they are exiles in their own land. He senses that it is his generation that must cross the bridge back to that landscape which defines his people's existence.' (Source: Publisher's blurb) (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch

    image of person or book cover
    Cover image courtesy UQP

    Swallow the Air follows the life of 15-year-old May Gibson, an Aboriginal girl from New South Wales whose mother commits suicide. May and her brother go to live with their aunt, but eventually May travels further afield, first to Redfern's Block in Sydney, then to the Northern Territory, and finally into central New South Wales. She travels to escape, but also in pursuit of a sense of her own history, family, and identity.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Purple Threads by Jeanine Leane

    image of person or book cover
    Cover image courtesy of QUP
    ' Purple Threads is a humorous collection of rural yarns by a gifted storyteller. Jeanine Leane grew up on a sheep farm near Gundagai, and the stories are based on her childhood experiences in a house full of fiercely independent women. In between Aunty Boo's surveillance of the local farmers' sheep dip alliance and Aunty Bubby's fireside tales of the Punic Wars, the women offer sage advice to their nieces on growing up as Indigenous girls in a white country town.

    The cast of strong Aboriginal women in a rural setting gives a fascinating insight into both Aboriginal and rural life.
    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry

    Jeanine Leane had won the David Unaipon Award for this work in 2010.

  • Tiddas by Anita Heiss

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from Anita Heiss website, 2014.

    'A story about what it means to be a friend … Five women, best friends for decades, meet once a month to talk about books … and life, love and the jagged bits in between. Dissecting each other’s lives seems the most natural thing in the world – and honesty, no matter how brutal, is something they treasure. Best friends tell each other everything, don’t they? But each woman harbours a complex secret and one weekend, without warning, everything comes unstuck.' (Source: Publishers website)

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Wiradjuri Poets and Poetry

  • Elizabeth Hodgson

    Photograph by the author

    Elizabeth Hodgson is a Wiradjuri woman, born in Wellington, New South Wales. She spent her childhood in a home for fair-skinned Aboriginal children in a Sydney suburb.

    After spending many years travelling, Elizabeth decided to make Wollongong, New South Wales, her home. She has been officially welcomed into Wadi Wadi country and has explored her Aboriginality and spirituality in depth since moving there.

    From 2003-2008, Hodgson sat on the Literature and History panel of Arts NSW and the Indigenous Arts Reference Group and during that time she was chair of the South Coast Writers' Centre.

    See full AustLit entry

    Wiradjuri poet, Elizabeth Hodgson was the winner of the David Unaipon Award in 2007 for her volume of poetry Skin Painting.

  • I am a Wiradjuri Woman by Elizabeth Hodgson

    First line from poem: "I am a Wiradjuri woman by mother is a Wiradjuri". This poem is from the volume Skin Painting.

  • Wiradjuri Man by Shawn Murray

    First line from poem: " I am a Wiradjuri Man". Shawn Murray wrote and sent this poem to the Koori Mail in 2004.

  • Anita Heiss

    image of person or book cover
    Photo credit: Amanda James

    Professor Anita Heiss is a member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales and is one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors of Aboriginal literature. She has a PhD in Communication and Media which resulted in a history of Indigenous publishing titled Dhuuluu-Yala : To Talk Straight. Other published works include the historical novel Who Am I? : The Diary of Mary Talence : Sydney, 1937, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, which she co-edited with Peter Minter.

    See full AustLit entry
  • Proud to Be Koori by Anita Heiss

    First line from poem: "I am a Wiradjuri Koori who has survived the shameful massacres,". Heiss dedicated this poem in honour of Windradyne, a Wiradjuri warrior.

  • Kerry Reed-Gilbert

    image of person or book cover
    Image courtesy of author Kerry Reed Gilbert, 2016.

    A Wiradjuri woman from Central New South Wales Kerry performed and conducted writing workshops nationally and internationally. She was the inaugural Chairperson of the First Nations Australians Writers Network (FNAWN). In 2013 she co-edited a collection of works with the Us Mob Writing (UMW) group ‘By Close of Business, and was co-editor for the Ora Nui Journal, a collaborative collection between First Nations Australia writers and Maori writers.

    See full AustLit entry

    Kerry Reed-Gilbert daughter of Kevin Gilbert is a well renown writer in her own rights. Reed-Gilbert believes that through her writing she is being 'true' to the meaning of her Totem - the White Cockatoo - which is symbolic of being a Messenger.

    Reed-Gilbert is also the editor of many publications from poetry to criticisms.

  • Wiradjuri Dreamin' by Kerry Reed-Gilbert

    First Line of poem: "In the land of the Wiradjuri"

  • If Only by Joy Williams

    First line from poem: "If only I had the courage to".

    Joy Williams poems related to her fight for all stolen children.

  • Wiradjuri Playwrights and Drama

    Below is a small collection of playwrights and their works.

  • Playwright Robert Merritt

    image of person or book cover
    Courtesy of the NLA
    Since writing the drama The Cake Man, the first black Australian play to be published, televised (1977) and to tour overseas (1982), Robert Merritt has been involved in the production of educational films aimed at rediscovering Aboriginal culture and roots.
    See full AustLit entry
  • The Cake Man by Robert Merritt

    A simple story of an Aboriginal family's hopes, The Cake Man is a compassionate plea for both blacks and whites to look again at the origins of mutual distrust and work together to restore a precious lost heritage. (Back cover of 1978 edition) (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Playwright, Poet, Author and Artist Kevin Gilbert

    Image courtesy of Eleanor Gilbert

    Kevin Gilbert (10 July 1933 - 1 April 1993) was born into the Wiradjuri nation on the Kalara riverbank (Lachlan River) in Condobolin, Central New South Wales. During his lifetime, Kevin was a tireless advocate for Aboriginal rights and responsibilities and has left a legacy for others Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal to follow in the struggle for recognition and acceptance of Aboriginal sovereignty and an understanding of the spirituality of the oldest living culture in the world.

    The youngest of eight children, Kevin and his siblings became orphaned at a very young age, which exposed the family to the racism of constant police harassment in country towns.

    See full AustLit entry

    Kevin Gilbert became the first Aboriginal Playwright with his play The Cherry Pickers in 1968.

  • The Cherry Pickers by Kevin Gilbert

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from online.

    "When the cold August wind abated in its final sigh of emergence from the lean, hard winter months into springtime, the People emerged from the cold, and often leaky shanties, and old discarded car-bodies, which were their home, to gather together their few ragged possessions and tie them in bundles ready for traveling to the cherry orchards, often many hundreds of miles away. Many would travel by bicycle with their swags swinging crazily from the frames; many traveled in old tattered caravans drawn by horses; many just walked beside the caravans through the red sandhill and mallee country, while the more daring 'jumped the rattler', the slow old steam train that chugged across the land.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Wiradjuri Film and Television

  • Film and Television producer Jon Bell

    image of person or book cover

    Jon Bell is a film and television producer. He grew up in Casino. His mother was Bundjalung and his father Wiradjuri. Bell made the short film And Justice For One before being commissioned to make another for SBS called Two Big Boys. He has also worked as a family case worker for the New South Wales Department of Children's Services.

    Among his significant works for television are The Gods of Wheat Street, Cleverman, and The Warriors.

    See full AustLit entry

    Indigenous writer Jon Bell created and wrote the dram series The Gods of Wheat Street with Every Cloud Productions for the ABC's Indigenous Unit.

  • The Gods of Wheat Street by Jon Bell

    image of person or book cover
    Screen cap from promotional trailer

    'The central character in the series is Odin Freeburn, who promised his dying mother 20 years ago he would keep the family together. Now, he has one brother in jail, another brother in love with the daughter of the family enemy and his wife has run away to the city, leaving him to raise their two daughters.

    His employer has just died, his sister-in-law is in love with him and the spirit of his mother Eden has come back to tell him how to do it all so much better and protect the important destiny of the Freeburn line.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Criticism and Non-Fiction Works

  • Because a White Man'll Never Do It by Kevin Gilbert

    image of person or book cover
    This image has been sourced from online.
    'First published in 1973, Kevin Gilbert's controversial account of Aboriginal affairs is a damning portrait of the colonisation of Australia by Britain and the problems that have resulted. It tells the story of land theft, attempted racial extermination, oppression, denial of human rights, slavery, ridicule, denigration, inequality and paternalism. And it posits a solution seemingly incomprehensible to many and it examines what the indigenous people really want - land, compensation, discreet non-dictatorial help, but most of all to be left alone by white Australia. (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Disturbing Performances of Race and Nation: King Bungaree, John Noble and Jimmy Clements by Maryrose Casey

    This essay is an exploration of the multiple cultural performances and performative Indigenous and non-Indigenous presences competing within events and erased by dominant narratives. The performance and performativity of race, class and culture for both black and white Australians in embodied performances and in accounts as a performative source of ideological meaning-making are critical factors within cross-cultural communications. The focus of this paper is on the dynamic between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous performances and presences within the enactment and documentation of two events separated by 100 years, a nineteenth century anecdote and a twentieth century 'historical' event.

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • This image has been sourced from Web.

    Jimmy Clements, or 'King Billy', as he was known by Europeans, was present at the Opening of the Provisional Parliament House in Canberra on 9 May 1927, a controversial gesture that has since been interpreted as the first land-rights demonstration.

  • Our Stories Are Our Survival by Lawrence Bamblett

    image of person or book cover
    Image courtesy of Publisher website

    'This book examines physical activities and sports important to Erambie Kooris, including the animated form of storytelling that has a significant physical performance component, games such as rounders and skipping, as well as bare knuckle fighting. It also examines the connections between physical activities and sports as cultural practices.' (Source: Koori Mail, issue 548 2013)

    (...more)
    See full AustLit entry
  • Wiradjuri Organisations

  • Wiradjuri Condolbolin Corporation

    The Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation was established in 2003 to implement the provisions of the Ancillary Deed on behalf of Native Title Party, and to create a better quality of life for the people of the Wiradjuri Condobolin community.

  • Sydney Aboriginal Languages and Computing Site

    Sydney Aboriginal Languages and Computing Site is constructed for sharing computing resources in Aborginal languages. Resources are created by language speakers and made to share on the web. This site was made to assist in sharing teaching material between languages in Sydney. Resources can be translated to different langues so provide more activities for students.

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