Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival: Education Day

Explore the rich history of First Nations storytelling through this free education event at State Library Victoria.

Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival is partnering with the Library to deliver a special education day for secondary students in years 9-12.

Featuring award-winning authors and playwrights, including Kirli Saunders, Lisa Fuller, Jared Thomas and Jane Harrison. Students will participate in panel discussions, author workshops, and a special performance of 6 Blak Plays in 60 Minutes featuring play excerpts written and performed by First Nations artists. 

This event will take place onsite at the Library. The introduction and panel discussion will be livestreamed from 10-11am for schools who wish to participate remotely. Please register for an online ticket to receive a link to this livestream.  

6 Blak Plays in 60 Minutes featured works

• Jacky by Declan Furber Gillick 
• Sunshine Supergirl by Andrea James 
• Rainbow’s End by Jane Harrison 
• Magpie by Glenn Shea 
• Tiddas by Anita Heiss 
• The Visitors by Jane Harrison 

About Kirli Saunders  

Kirli Saunders (OAM) is a proud Gunai Woman and award-winning multidisciplinary creator and consultant. An experienced speaker and facilitator advocating for the environment and equality. Kirli was the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year (2020). Kirli’s books, The Incredible Freedom Machines, Kindred, Bindi and Our Dreaming, have been celebrated by the Prime Minister’s, QLD, WA and Victorian Premier’s Literary, ABIAs, Kate Challis RAKA, ABDA and CBCA awards. Her work has been published in anthologies and public art. She has 8 forthcoming titles, including in 2023, Returning. Kirli’s art has been exhibited in numerous galleries and commissioned for public art across a range of sectors. Her first solo play, Going Home, has been commissioned by Playwriting Australia and will take the stage in 2023. Kirli is a board member of Merrigong Theatre.  

About Jared Thomas

Dr Jared Thomas is a Nukunu person of the Southern Flinders Ranges and the Research Fellow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Material Culture and Art at the South Australian Museum and University of South Australia. An international award-winning children’s and young adult fiction writer, his novel Calypso Summer is on the International Youth Library White Raven list of books that deserve worldwide attention.  

Jared’s other award-winning releases include Songs that Sound Like Blood and the Game Day series co-written with NBA player and Olympian Patty Mills.  

About Lisa Fuller

Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, and is also descended from Gooreng Gooreng and Wakka Wakka peoples. She won the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer, the 2018 Varuna Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship, was a joint winner of the 2018 Copyright Agency Fellowships for First Nations Writers, and placed second in the 2018 Feminartsy Memoir Prize. Lisa’s young adult novel, Ghost Bird, won the Griffith University Young Adult Book Award in the Queensland Literary Awards, the Norma K Hemming Award, and Readings Young Adult Prize in 2020, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature and 2022 Indigenous Writers’ Prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She has previously published poetry, blogs and short fiction. Lisa is an editor and publishing consultant passionate about culturally appropriate writing and publishing. 

Lisa is a member of Us Mob Writing, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, the First Nations Australia Writers Network, and the Canberra Society of Editors. 

About Jane Harrison

Jane Harrison is descended from the Muruwari people and is a playwright and author. Her play Stolen played across Australia and internationally for seven years. Rainbow’s End has had numerous productions, won the 2012 Drover Award, and is on the Victorian English Curriculum 2023. The Visitors premiered at Sydney Festival in 2020 and won the Sydney Critics Award for Best New Australian Work. Her novel Becoming Kirrali Lewis won the 2014 Black & Write! Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Awards. Jane directed the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival in 2016, 2019 and 2022. She believes in the power of stories in strengthening cultural connections.