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The Garret Series: Writing Race and Class - an Aboriginal Perspective

Date:

With:

Melissa Lucashenko

Rating:

ALL

Summary:

'The fed do not understand the hungry' goes a Russian folk saying. And the gulf between Indigenous and settler societies in Australia has deep roots which are structural, beneficial to mainstream society, and resistant to positive change.

A portrait of Melissa Lucashenko

Melissa Lucashenko

Details

This half-day workshop led by one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal authors explores some issues involved in outsiders writing Aboriginal lives. It also looks at those who have never been poor writing the lives of those who are. The more obvious pitfalls of cliché and stereotype will be discussed, and participants will be encouraged to explore ways of writing from the outside which “first, do no harm”.

Presented in partnership with The Garret Podcast and the Emerging Writers' Festival.

You will learn

  • what it is to be a non-Aboriginal person writing in Australia
  • the nature of ‘frame blindness’ in this context
  • the colonialism inherent in writing Aboriginal characters
  • what to avoid
  • where to look for more information on local specifics

About Melissa Lucashenko

Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award winning Aboriginal author of both fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent novel 'Mullumbimby' (UQP 2013) won the Queensland Deloitte Fiction Prize, the Victorian Premier’s Award for Indigenous Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Kibble Prize. Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her essay 'Down and Out in Brisbane and Logan' (Griffith Review) and is a founding member of Sisters Inside, an organization which promotes the human rights of criminalized women in Queensland.

Melissa was the recipient of the 2016 CAL Fellowship, which she was awarded to write her forthcoming novel 'Too Much Lip' (UQP 2018).

About The Garret Podcast

The Garret is not a podcast about individual books, nor is it designed to promote a writer's latest publication. It is a series exploring how the best of the best start, draft, complete and market their writing. The Garret was born in Melbourne, a UNESCO City of Literature. And it is supported by our community. Writers Victoria is proud to partner with The Garret, alongside the State Library of VictoriaReadings and Swinburne University.

Cancellation Policy

 

Support

There are three fully-funded bursaries available for Indigenous writers and/or writers of colour to attend this workshop. To apply for a bursary, please email Claire at [email protected] with a statement about yourself, and why you would like to attend (max 300 words).

If you would like to sign up and are experiencing financial hardship, please contact [email protected] to enquire about supported places.

Cancellation Policy

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Registration for this event ended on 22 June 2018 - 4:00
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