Celebrate NAIDOC Week with Classic First Nations Literature!

2025 marks 50 years of NAIDOC week. In recognition of this milestone, the 2025 theme for NAIDOC week is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. This theme invites us to look back as well as to look forward; at the library, we are thinking about First Nations books and authors that have made Australian literature richer.  

A particularly exciting publishing project that celebrates First Nations writers in Australia is the First Nations Classics series published by the University of Queensland Press. Many of the works appearing in this series are by authors who are writing new works today—vital Australian voices like Alexis Wright (winner of the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin prize), Tony Birch, Tara June Winch and Ellen Van Neerven. Many of these works have been out of print for some time; making them available for a new generation of readers is important work that allows us all to celebrate the rich tradition of Indigenous storytelling in Australia.  

At YPRL, we highlight these books with a sticker that shows they are part of our Deadly Collection. Designed by Wurundjeri artist Alex Kerr, these stickers help Indigenous voices stand out on our shelves.  

The First Nations Classics series is a great place to start getting acquainted with great Indigenous writing today; at the same time, these works just scratch the surface. Dive in, and let one book lead you to the next. 

Great Fiction 

Alexis Wright is a writer of international stature, her brand of “Aboriginal realism” coupled with touches of magical realism unfolds a new way to imagine our stories of the past, present and future. Her first book Plains of Promise was shortlisted for many awards; set in Queensland’s Gulf country like her follow-up novel, the multi-award winning Carpentaria .  As well as her subsequent novels The Swan Book and Praiseworthy, our collection also includes her Stella Prize-winning  non-fiction work Tracker.

Legendary Melbourne-based writer Tony Birch has published short stories, poetry and novels. Blood, his first novel, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award and consolidated Birch’s success from his debut collection of short stories, Shadowboxing . A contemporary classic, Blood sits alongside Birch’s more recent novels Ghost River, The White Girl and Women & Children  in our collection. You can also check out Birch's poetry collection Whisper Songs and his story collections Common People and Dark as Night. 

Tara June Winch’s debut novel Swallow the Air was a work that gained attention for the writer immediately—she was named as one of 2007’s “Best Young Novelists” by the Sydney Morning Herald, and now takes its place as a contemporary classic. Her most recent novel, The Yield,  delivered on the promise of her debut, winning many of Australia’s most prestigious awards for fiction including the Miles Franklin.   

In a collection that blurs the line between short stories and the novel, Ellen van Neerven’s Heat and Light is an inventive work that takes risks in its storytelling. Van Neerven has also written two poetry collections:  their award winning poetry collection Throat is available as an eBook . Their work of nonfiction Personal Space  won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for nonfiction in 2024. 

Archie Weller was a runner up for the Vogel prize for his first novel in 1980; he is perhaps best known as the author of short stories. The Window Seat is a collection of his best stories, allowing readers to catch glimpses of Aboriginal life . His work is also included alongside other established and emerging First Nations short story writers in the anthology Flock: First Nation stories, edited by Ellen van Neerven and drawing on work published over the 25 years from 1996 to 2021. (Flock also includes work by Tony Birch, Tara June Winch and Melissa Lucashenko among others.) 

Important True Stories 

The film Rabbit-Proof Fence made the story of Molly famous internationally. The account of Molly’s 1600-kilometre journey with her sisters, written by Molly’s daughter Nugi Garamara (Doris Pilkington) Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence  is an essential work of Indigenous storytelling. Australia has been grappling with the impacts of Stolen Generations since the first removals of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their families and communities; this work is a document whose scope is breathtaking in considering the hardships faced by children taken from their families and placed in a state-run institutions, but it is also a story of resilience.  

Bundjalung author Ruby Langford Ginibi’s memoir Don’t Take Your Love to Town was her first book, published when the author was 54. Spanning eras of huge change, Ginibi loses her mother at 6, leaves the Mission at 15 and traverses the country, making ends meet—just.   

Ruth Hegarty’s memoir Is that You, Ruthie?   is a memoir that depicts life in the dormitory of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission where Hegarty grew up during the depression years. She was later, at age 14, sent away to become a domestic servant. Both an wholly particular memoir and a work that speaks to the experiences of generations, this is an important work of memory.   

In Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling Larissa Behrendt investigates the story of Eliza Fraser and her supposed capture by the Butchella people on the Queensland coast in 1836. This story offers Behrendt a departure point to consider the ways First Nations people, from Australia and elsewhere, have been depicted in works by colonial storytellers.