Dylan Coleman

Dylan Coleman is a Kokatha (Gugada)-Greek woman who grew up in Thevenard on the far west coast of South Australia. She is the award-winning author of Mazin Grace, and has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide, where she teaches Indigenous health at Yaitya Purruna Indigenous Health Unit in the School of Population Health.

The creative component of Dylan’s PhD was written from the oral transcript of her mother, Mercy Glastonbury (nee Coleman), based on Mercy’s childhood growing up on Koonibba Lutheran Mission in the 1940’s and 50’s and is written in Aboriginal English and Kokatha (Gugada). Mazin Grace won the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writing (2011), was longlisted for the Stella Award (2013), and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize (2013). For over twenty years Dylan has worked across Aboriginal education, health, land rights, and the Arts, with a focus on Aboriginal community engagement and social justice.