Kerry Reed-Gilbert: The Cherry Picker’s Daughter

Please note: Aunty Kerry has passed away and approval has been granted to display her picture.
Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert was a Wiradjuri poet, elder, editor, educator and a champion of up-and-coming Indigenous writers. Her contribution to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literary community – and to Australia’s rich literary landscape more broadly – is hard to overstate. Aunty Kerry co-founded the First Nations Australian Writers Network (FNAWN) and edited many indispensable books of Indigenous poetry and prose.
When Aunty Kerry died in July this year, she’d just completed the manuscript for her memoir, The Cherry Picker’s Daughter. In the book, she tells the story of growing up Aboriginal on the fringes of outback towns in New South Wales. It’s a story about poverty, racism and persecution and about the bravery and resilience of Aboriginal women, particularly her father’s sister, Aunty Joyce Hutchings, who raised her along with her own children.
At this very special panel event, hosted by Jeanine Leane, we’re bringing together some great guests – writers, friends and academics – to celebrate Aunty Kerry’s life and legacy.
Neighbourhood Books will be our bookseller for this event.
Featuring
Featuring

Jeanine Leane belongs to the Wiradjuri people from the Murrumbidgee River in south west NSW. She is a writer poet and teacher whose prose, essays and poetry have been published widely in Australia and abroad. She is the editor of Guwayu – for all times: A collection of First Nations Poetry and cur... Read more

Timmah Ball is a nonfiction writer, researcher and creative practitioner of Ballardong Noongar heritage. In 2018 she co-created Wild Tongue Zine for Next Wave Festival with Azja Kulpinska which interrogated labor inequality in the arts industry. In 2016 she won the Westerly magazine Patricia Hackett... Read more
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