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Photo by Connor Tomas O'Brien; courtesy of the author.
Sandra R. Phillips Sandra R. Phillips i(A34574 works by) (a.k.a. Sandra Ruth Phillips)
Born: Established: Bundaberg, Bundaberg area, Maryborough - Rockhampton area, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Wakka Wakka ; Aboriginal Gooreng Gorreng
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Works By

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1 Draw Closer : A Road We Can All Travel Sandra R. Phillips , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 458 2023; (p. 19-20)

— Review of The Welcome to Country Handbook : A Guide to Indigenous Australia Marcia Langton , 2023 multi chapter work criticism

'Walking into Sydney’s iconic Abbey’s Bookshop, I noticed a prominent display of books devoted to the campaign to recognise Indigenous peoples in the Australian Constitution. Some of the books were new to me; all were written with great care and doubtless published for the moment. Marcia Langton’s The Welcome to Country Handbook: A guide to Indigenous Australia wasn’t among them, perhaps because of its newness, perhaps because it transcends the moment, its title signposting a broader remit. Langton’s wide-ranging knowledge, irrepressible curiosity, and longstanding engagement with culture, education, and politics bring a breadth to the work that few others could offer.' (Introduction)

1 Brenda Matthews Was Ripped from a Loving Family Twice. But She Was Born Too Late to Be Officially Recognised as Stolen Generations Sandra R. Phillips , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 14 June 2023;

— Review of The Last Daughter Brenda Matthews , 2023 single work autobiography
1 Vince Copley Had a Vision for a Better Australia – and He Helped Make It Happen, with Lifelong Friend Charles Perkins Sandra R. Phillips , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 10 January 2023;

— Review of The Wonder of Little Things Vincent Copley , Lea McInerney , 2022 single work autobiography

'In his memoir’s final chapter, Vince Copley wonders: if the first legal marriage of an Aboriginal woman and a white man had been socially accepted in the 1850s, would his own wife have been spared being pushed to the end of the 1970s bank queue because she was with him, a blackfella? Would that real estate agent have considered their application instead of throwing it straight in the bin? Would their daughter have been spared the schoolyard bullying and their son the name-calling?' (Introduction)   

1 Friday Essay: We Are the Voice – Why We Need More Indigenous Editors Sandra R. Phillips , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 September 2022;

'Eddie Koiki Mabo and others made the High Court of Australia recognise in 1992 that terra nullius – nobody’s land – was a fiction. It is taking us longer to kill off its lesser-known cousin, vox nullius. Vox can mean sound, word or voice; ideas of us – us being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples – having no voice are part of an enduring colonial imaginary.' (Introduction)

1 Living Cultures under the Acts : Thriving beyond Resistance Jay Phillips , Sandra R. Phillips , 2022 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 76 2022; (p. 55-63)

'IT IS EARLY evening. The family is together at the home Mum bought and paid for with cash savings squirrelled away over many years. All four of her daughters are present. Aunts, Uncles, cousins too. And, most importantly, our nana – Mum’s mother.' (Introduction)

1 'A Piece of Scrub like Deane : Tony Birch's Resonant New Novel Sandra R. Phillips , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 413 2019; (p. 50-51)

— Review of The White Girl Tony Birch , 2019 single work novel
'If the number of reviews and interviews are indicators of a new book’s impact, Tony Birch’s novel The White Girl has landed like a B-format sized asteroid. Birch’s publisher estimates a substantial number of reviews and other features since publication. I’ve consulted none of them. Usually I can’t help myself from immersing myself in any and all artefacts of literary reception. With The White Girl I wanted to stay with the work, stay with Odette Brown and with Sissy, stay on the fringes of the fictional town called Deane, stay on that train to the big smoke – stay with The White Girl and reflect on where it took me.' (Introduction)
1 A Rightful Path : Educating for Change and Achievement Sandra R. Phillips , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 60 2018; (p. 117-125)

'In 1985, I started a bachelor’s degree the month I turned seventeen. Despite a change of degree from social work to arts, I graduated from the University of Queensland with publication and research experience at twenty and became a permanent policy research officer in the Australian Public Service by twenty-one. In four years I had gone from a country Queensland school leaver to a public servant in the head office of Aboriginal Hostels Limited, producing research reports with strategic and operational impact on its accommodation and support services.' (Introduction)

1 From the Earth Out : Word, Image, Sound, Object, Body, Country Sandra R. Phillips , Alison Ravenscroft , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 61 no. 1 2016; (p. 105-117)
'In this essay we speak to the significance of Indigenous story, and for textual practices that enable Indigenous story its distinctive and multiple enunciations. We approach these questions through a discussion of our work on a new digital Indigenous Story project, which aims to make its own contribution to the wider project of developing places for the publication of Indigenous story that are shaped by the standards and practices rather than by those of European-centred editing, publishing and critical practices. What follows are our first efforts to document the ways in which we are currently thinking about story and the ethics of textual production and publication. This aims to be an ethics that does not impose itself of contributors to the site but arises in a dynamic relation with these men's and women's textual practices as they themselves enquire into the nature of story and its generative processes.. In this way, the project is potentially one in which all its contributors are in fact participants who keep pushing the project along new lines.' (105)
1 2 y separately published work icon Shock 'Em : Stories of the Big River Hawks Shock 'em! Anita Heiss , Sandra R. Phillips , Broadway : Indigenous Literacy Foundation , 2016 9707476 2016 anthology short story

'The book contains works of fiction about playing in a Hawthorn Grand Final, personal articles about significant places in their lives and letters to their heroes such as their dads, Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and Adelaide Crows star Eddie Betts.' (Source: National Indigenous Times online, 13 July 2016)

1 Meet the Woman Bringing Aboriginal Cinema to the Screens of Paris Sandra R. Phillips (interviewer), 2016 single work interview
— Appears in: The Conversation , 2 June 2016;

'In a tiny cinema in the Latin Quarter of Paris, something very unusual for French filmgoers is on display. For five days, the programme at Cinema La Clef is devoted not to the latest Hollywood blockbusters, nor to the finest French cinema, but to the best examples of Australian Indigenous film-making.'

'The first Festival of Australian Aboriginal Cinema (La Festival du Cinéma Aborigène Australien) will showcase films that may have garnered awards at Cannes, but are nonetheless unfamiliar to audiences in one of the world’s capitals of cinematic culture. It is the first festival of its kind in Europe.'

1 Black Velvet : Redefining and Celebrating Indigenous Australian Women in Art Sandra R. Phillips , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 May 2016;
'With her first solo exhibition, artist Boneta-Marie Mabo has been inspired by the State Library of Queensland’s collections to create new works that speak back to colonial representations of Indigenous womanhood.'
1 Literature : Writing Ourselves Sandra R. Phillips , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Knowledge of Life : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia 2015; (p. 98-117)

'If resilience is a hallmark of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s survival beyond centuries of colonisation and oppression, brandishing the pen – or any its modern equivalents– can be understood as key resilience and survival strategy. Writing ourselves into contemporary and future existence is a complex act of cultural translation; it involves a speaking to others through a technology from a foreign culture. Subsequently, Indigenous writing is born into complexity.

Source: Abstract.

1 Five Must-Read Books by Indigenous Authors Sandra R. Phillips , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 October 2014;
1 Those Types of TV Characters Sandra R. Phillips , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: National Indigenous Times , 15 September vol. 10 no. 233 2011; (p. 30)
1 6 y separately published work icon Fresh Cuttings : A Celebration of Fiction and Poetry From UQP's Black Writing Series Sue Abbey (editor), Sandra R. Phillips (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2003 Z1063168 2003 anthology poetry extract (taught in 1 units) 'These individual "cuttings", or extracts, have been gathered from novels and poetry collections published in UQP's Black Writing series since 1990.' (Fresh Cuttings, 2003)
1 A Child's Dreaming : Looking at Illustrated Indigenous Stories for Children Sandra R. Phillips , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kaltja Now : Indigenous Arts Australia 2001; (p. 147)
The traditional teaching stories of Australia's ancient Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures can find a new telling in today's literature for children. Codifiers of wisdom, laden with metaphor, these narratives have already inspired wonder in the young for thousands of generations. Today such stories are represented by well over one hundred titles in children's illustrated books. Some demonstrate literary and ethical qualities showing sensitivity and respect for originating cultures. Others do not.
1 White Noise and Fuzzy Hazy Stuff Sandra R. Phillips , 1999 single work column
— Appears in: QWC News Magazine , February no. 71 1999; (p. 13, 29-30)
1 Aboriginal Women's Writing Today Sandra R. Phillips , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , Autumn vol. 9 no. 1 1997; (p. 40-42)
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