Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 01 June
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In her introduction to Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, editor Anita Heiss writes: ‘[These] stories cover country from Nukunu to Noongar, Wiradjuri to Western Arrernte, Ku Ku Yalinji to Kunibidji, Gunditjamara to Gumbaynggirr and many places in between.’
It’s a collection of truly diverse stories – sometimes surprising and funny, often confronting and always illuminating – that paint a rich and detailed picture of what it means to come of age as an Aboriginal Australian. How do the formative experiences of Aboriginal Australians shape their sense of self and their sense of community? And what experiences do Aboriginal kids across the country have in common – whether they’re in the city or the suburbs or in the most remote corners of the continent?
With contributors Celeste Liddle, Zachary Penrith-Puchalski and Sharon Payne, Heiss will host a frank, funny and forthright discussion of formative years and life lessons. Join them as they talk pride, stereotypes and family stories.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Paperback will be our bookseller at this event.
#GrowingUpAboriginal
This event was live-streamed.
Featuring
Anita Heiss
Anita Heiss is the author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women's fiction, poetry, social commentary and travel articles. She is a Lifetime Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW. Anita was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards and the 2013 Australian of the Year Awards. She lives in Brisbane.
Anita has won four Deadly Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, for her novels Not Meeting Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming and Paris Dreaming and for the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature.
Zachary Penrith-Puchalski
Zachary Penrith-Puchalski was born in 1990 and is from the Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung tribes. His grandfather, Burnum Burnum, was an Indigenous rights activist best known for planting the Aboriginal flag on the White Cliffs of Dover in England in 1988. Zachary currently lives in Melbourne and studies criminology and psychology at RMIT University, and plans to work in the justice and community services sector.
He has appeared on ABC TV’s You Can’t Ask That and works to support Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ Australians through various organisations, as well as providing workshops on identity for young people.
Celeste Liddle
Celeste Liddle is an Arrernte woman (traditional owner in Central Australia) who was born in Canberra and has been living in Melbourne since she was a teenager. She is a trade unionist, an activist, a feminist, a social commentator and an opinion writer. In May 2021, she was announced as the preselected Greens candidate for the seat of Cooper in the upcoming Federal Election.
Celeste currently has a column with Eureka Street but has additionally been published by Fairfax, Newscorp, ABC, SBS, and many independent publications. In addition to this, Celeste has contributed to a number of anthologies of note including Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia and Mothers and Others.
She completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Theatre and Drama at La Trobe University in 2002, a Graduate Diploma in Arts (primarily Political Sciences) at the University of Melbourne in 2012 and a Masters of Communications and Media Studies at Monash in 2020.
Sharon Payne
Sharon Payne is a Wonnamutta elder of the Badjula from K’gari (Fraser Island). She grew up in Queensland before moving to Ngunnawal country (Canberra) in 1986 where she still resides. In 1974 Sharon became the first Aboriginal student at the University of Queensland and, since then, has completed a Bachelor of Law and Diploma of Neuroscience. Professionally she has been a senior public servant and CEO of legal services in Darwin and NSW. Currently Sharon is a member of the Galambany Circle Sentencing Court and is working on her PhD thesis on the neuroscience underlying Aboriginal incarceration.