Note: BlackWords is an ongoing project maintained by a national team led first by Anita Heiss then by Jeanine Leane.
Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 BlackWords : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

BlackWords provides access to both general and specific information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literary cultures and traditions, providing a platform for the investigation and articulation of what 'Black writing' and 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature'. BlackWords also contains records describing published and unpublished books, stories, plays, poems and criticism associated with eligible writers and storytellers and includes works in English and in Indigenous languages.

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2007- version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Teaching with BlackWords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers, Jeanine Leane , single work criticism
BlackWords is essential for incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives across the humanities and social science curriculum. While it is obvious that BlackWords is an excellent resource for English classrooms, it is also a valuable resource for history, social studies, politics, art, media, performing arts and film studies.
The material on BlackWords is most relevant to secondary and tertiary students. Not only does BlackWords contain material relevant to all three over-arching priorities for the National Curriculum, but the National Curriculum also states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives be embedded in all subjects, irrespective of whether there are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the classroom.
Note: Revised in 2019.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Information and Transformation : The Continuing Expansion of AustLit Maggie Nolan , 2024 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 464 2024; (p. 33-34)

'Say, you’re a school teacher in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and you’re looking for a play for your class to perform that is set in Broome. Or maybe you’re a crime writer playing with the idea of writing a novel set in Sydney and want to check out what other crime novels have been set there. Perhaps you just found out that your great aunt once wrote a series of poems, and you want to know more. It could even be that you’re an author wanting to find the reviews of your latest short story collection. All this, and more, can be found in AustLit. Scholars of Australian literature know how valuable AustLit has been for over two decades, but anyone with an interest in Australian literary culture will find something worth exploring in Australia’s national literary database. AustLit will not only answer your questions, it will surely inspire more.' (Introduction)

The Surge in Sales of Indigenous Books Is Heartening but Education Takes Many Forms Anita Heiss , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 25 June 2020;

'Aboriginal people have been inundated with questions about how to be a better ally. It gives us hope but it’s absolutely exhausting.'

Digital Curation, AustLit, and Australian Children's Literature Amy Cross , Cherie Allan , Kerry Kilner , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: International Research in Children's Literature , July vol. 12 no. 1 2019; (p. 1-17)

'This paper examines the effects of curatorial processes used to develop children's literature digital research projects in the bibliographic database AustLit. Through AustLit's emphasis on contextualising individual works within cultural, biographical, and critical spaces, Australia's literary history is comprehensively represented in a unique digital humanities space. Within AustLit is BlackWords, a project dedicated to recording Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, publishing, and literary cultural history, including children's and young adult texts. Children's literature has received significant attention in AustLit (and BlackWords) over the last decade through three projects that are documented in this paper. The curation of this data highlights the challenges in presenting ‘national’ literatures in countries where minority voices were (and perhaps continue to be) repressed and unseen. This paper employs a ‘resourceful reading’ approach – both close and distant reading methods – to trace the complex and ever-evolving definition of ‘Australian children's literature’.'

Source: EUP.

Heiss Lets Her Passion Shine in a New Uni Role 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 27 February no. 695 2019; (p. 36)

Discusses Anita Heiss' new role as Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland.' 

Six Groundings for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Story in the Australian Creative Writing Classroom : Part 1 Paul Collis , Jen Crawford , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 21 no. 2 2017;

'‘All Australian children deserve to know the country that they share through the stories that Aboriginal people can tell them,’ write Gladys Idjirrimoonra Milroy and Jill Milroy (2008: 42). If country and story, place and voice are intertwined, it is vital that we make space in Australian creative writing classrooms for the reading and writing of Australian Indigenous story. What principles and questions can allow us to begin? We propose six groundings for this work:

  • Indigenous story is literary history, literary history is creative power.
  • We do culture together: culture becomes in collaboration, conscious or unconscious.
  • There is no such thing as Indigenous story, and yet it can be performed and known. 
  • Country speaks, to our conceptions of voice and point of view.
  • History and memory are written in the land and on the body in bodies of practice.
  • Story transmits narrative responsibility.  Narrative responsibility requires fierce listening.

This two-part paper will discuss each of these groundings as orienting and motivating principles for work we do as teachers of introductory creative writing units at the University of Canberra.'  (Publication abstract)

Up a Ladder : Black Words and Me Jake Milroy , 2009 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 54 no. 2 2009; (p. 56-65)
BlackWords team member Jake Milroy talks about how BlackWords came into his life.
Only a year or so ago I had been addressing an audience of trees out of frustration at the deafness of Australians to Indigenous issues. Now here I am, collecting and showcasing the powerful words of some of our great Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and orators. Perhaps the trees put in a good word for me. I like to think so.
Teaching with BlackWords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers Jeanine Leane , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: BlackWords : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers 2007-;
BlackWords is essential for incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives across the humanities and social science curriculum. While it is obvious that BlackWords is an excellent resource for English classrooms, it is also a valuable resource for history, social studies, politics, art, media, performing arts and film studies.
The material on BlackWords is most relevant to secondary and tertiary students. Not only does BlackWords contain material relevant to all three over-arching priorities for the National Curriculum, but the National Curriculum also states that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives be embedded in all subjects, irrespective of whether there are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the classroom.
Benang : A Worldly Book Roger Osborne , Gillian Whitlock , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 3 2013;
'This article draws on recent trends in Australian literary criticism to scan new horizons for readings of Kim Scott’s novel Benang and, more generally, to consider the networks that shape various scenes of reading and interpretive communities for the production and reception of Australian Indigenous writing.' (Publication abstract)
Tasmanian Hauntings Kerry Kilner , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: Island , no. 137 2014; (p. 38-39)
'A few years ago an AustLit research project, 'The Literature of Tasmania', was undertaken at the University of Tasmania. Led by Philip Mead, now professor of Australian literature at the University of Western Australia, the research team gathered data on all forms of creative writing and the authors and subjects of those works that related to Tasmania, plugging that data into AustLit to create a rich collection of data and information. Records about Tasmanian related works now number more than 24,000.' (Publication summary)
Black Words Kerry Kilner , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , no. 137 2014; (p. 44-45)

'Anita Heiss's latest novel, Tiddas (Simon and Schuster, 2014), is a demonstration of the way Black Australian stories are surging through a wide variety of genres in Australian literature. The story explores friendship, family, books and the challenges and pleasures that women meet along life's pathways as culture, history, love and babies collide with the realities of modern Australia. Heiss, who has been described as inventing Aboriginal Chick Lit (or 'Chock Lit'), is a dynamic, committed writer with a social conscience. So many of the writers whose careers, lives and writing is showcased in BlackWords (the most popular project in the AustLit web resource) deal with the realities 'of living Black in Australia.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 7 Aug 2019 11:23:07
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