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Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia

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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 20... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 presele... Read more

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 ... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.