Strength, Vision, Legacy: Blak Classics Reborn

Emeritus Professor MaryAnn Bin-Sallik AO is a Jaru woman born in Broome, Western Australia, and spent most her life in Darwin, Northern Territory. In 1961, she graduated as a registered nurse from the Darwin Hospital. In 1975, she became the first Indigenous Australian person to be employed in Australia’s higher education sector, and was at the forefront of what is known as the Indigenous higher education sector. She retired from Charles Darwin University in 2008, and in recognition of her distinguished academic service was made an emeritus professor, awarded an honorary doctorate in 2016.

In 2017, MaryAnn received the NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year Award. In the same the year, she was awarded an Order of Australia for her distinguished contribution to Australia’s education sector. In 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Western Sydney University.

Paul Collis is a Barkindji man. He was born in Bourke, in far northwest New South Wales. His early life was informed by Barkindji and Kunya and Murawarri, and Wongamara and Nyempa story tellers and artists, who taught him Aboriginal Culture and Law. Paul earned his Doctorate at University Canberra in 2015, for a study of Barkindji identity with a specific focus on masculinity. His first novel, Dancing Home won the 2017 David Unaipon Award, and the 2019 ACT Book of the year Award. Paul’s first poetry collection, Nightmares Run Like Mercury, was published by Recent Work Press in 2021. Paul works as Director, Indigenous Engagement, in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra.

Gayle Kennedy is a member of the Wongaiibon Clan of NSW and was the Indigenous Issues editor and writer for Streetwise Comics from 1995-1998. In 2005 her poetry manuscript 'Koori Girl Goes Shoppin'' was shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award, and in 2006 she won the David Unaipon Award for Me, Antman & Fleabag, which was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, a Deadly Award and was commended in the Kate Challis RAKA Award. Gayle has published eleven children's books as part of the Yarning Strong (OUP) series, and six of these were nominated for the 2011 Deadly Award for Achievement in Literature.

Gayle runs writing workshops and has presented at writers festivals, schools and NAIDOC events, and has spoken nationally and internationally on her experience with disability. She was commissioned by Red Room Poetry to write a poem for the Carved Trees Exhibition at the State Library of NSW.

moirra. (xe/xer, they/them) is a Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung, Jewish, and queer transsexual self-taught writer, poet, and artist living in Naarm. Xer work has been showcased in multiple art exhibitions, including the Koorie Heritage Trust's A Rainbow of Tomorrows exhibition and The Shed x ArtKind's Representations of Us exhibition, and featured in QTIPOC collective DEiFY's Queer Masculinities zine. Xer work examines the relationship between queer and trans peoples, families and communities, and wider society and the environment. moirra's chief themes of interest are decolonised storytelling that challenges settler narratives, horror, and queerness. Xe believes in writing as a revolutionary tool. It holds the power to champion the voices of marginalised peoples, challenge the status quo of oppressive colonial systems, and imagine a just and liberatory future for us all.

Yasmin Smith is a poet and editor of South Sea Islander, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage. Her poems have appeared in Frankie, Meanjin, Island, Griffith Review, Overland, Australian Poetry Journal, Best of Australian Poetry and more. In 2024 she won the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, and received Varuna's First Nations Flagship Fellowship. She is currently an editor at UQP working across fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and poetry where her work includes overseeing their groundbreaking First Nations Classics series.

Dr Amy Thunig-McGregor (B.Arts; M.Teach; PhD) is a Gomeroi/Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay academic who parents and partners on beautiful Awabakal Country.

A full-time Research Fellow within the field of education at the University of Technology Sydney, Amy is also a Director on several education-focused boards, sits on various councils and committees, and in 2019 delivered their TEDx talk ‘Disruption is not a dirty word’.

A freelance public speaker and occasional curator, Amy had the pleasure of co-curating the 2023 All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House, and the 2024 Sydney Writer’s Festival. Amy’s first book Tell Me Again: A Memoir was released via UQP in 2022 and has been shortlisted for numerous State and National awards.

Samuel is a University of Queensland Press author. He is of Munanjali/German Australian descent. His poetry has won numerous prizes including the 2018 Patrick White Fellowship. New + Used Ghosts is his latest project of fiction and verse.

Tara June Winch is Wiradjuri writer based in France. She is the author of Miles Franklin Literary Award winner The Yield, as well as After the Carnage, and Swallow the Air, which is reissued as a UQP First Nation Classic, and has been a syllabus text for almost two decades. She is currently working in film writing and on her latest novel, Geography.