The 2024 Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival will return on March 13-17 with its biggest iteration yet, to entertain and educate writers, bibliophiles and all audiences with an array of amazing events.
Spanning five days, with over 30 events and 80 First Nations artists of diverse backgrounds and genres, the significant festival is a powerful call to action. Festival highlights include screen icon Leah Purcell AM delivering a keynote, reflecting on her extraordinary life as an actor, writer, director, producer, singer and speaker, sharing the lessons she’s learnt along the way. And an In Conversation with two icons, Miles Franklin Award-winner Kim Scott and renowned academic, author and activist Tony Birch, which gives audiences a sneak peek into the illuminating book On Kim Scott: Writers on Writers written by Birch which hits shelves later this year.
Events such as Through Our Lens sees six renowned writers share 12 images that define their stories – images of family, Country, working lives, the places and people that influence them. Storymakers, artists and writers include ABC journalist Daniel Browning, Australia’s first Indigenous psychiatrist Helen Milroy, award-winning multidisciplinary artist Kirli Saunders, and author Mariah Sweetman. Helen Milroy also joins the fabulous Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, and Debra Dank to reveal how they write while juggling the many roles Aboriginal women fulfil in their communities in a festival favourite, Sistas Are Doin’ It.
Festival Director Jane Harrison will explore the poignant themes of her novel and play The Visitors alongside Melissa Lucashenko who delves into her epic novel Edenglassie, for an insightful conversation on First Nations perspectives of colonisation. While The Bogong is a chance to come together and hold space for spoken word pieces with performances by the likes of record-breaking author Debra Dank.
