Member Spotlight: Julie Janson

3.07.23

In celebration of NAIDOC Week, this July we're shining the spotlight on First Nations creators, and we're thrilled to share our interview with Julie Janson! 

Julie Janson is of Aboriginal descent from the Burruberongal clan of the Darug Nation of the Hawkesbury River, NSW. Her career as a playwright began when she wrote and directed plays in remote Australian Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. She is now a novelist and award-winning poet. Julie’s historical novel BENEVOLENCE was published by Magabala Books and HarperVia in September 2022. It was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award 2022 and nominated for the NIB and VOSS Literary Awards 2021-22. Julie is a recipient of a Create NSW Arts grant and an Australia Council of the Arts grant for her crime novel: Madukka the River Serpent, with an Aboriginal woman protagonist sleuth.

What inspired you to begin writing?

As a young woman, I was a teacher in remote Aboriginal communities and I wrote plays with the Yolngu and Allawa students and we created giant puppets and batik costumes.  When I returned to Sydney I worked in Aboriginal education in Universities and taught drama and communications. At that time I wrote my first play professional play Gunjies produced at Belvoir St Theatre. There were few roles for Aboriginal women in published plays, so I began creating characters that reflected women as protagonists. I still put Aboriginal women in the central roles in my novels.

What do you hope readers will take away from your work?

I hope they will gain some understanding of Aboriginal society both historically and in contemporary times. Learning about Australia's tempestuous past of colonial invasion and racism is a way of seeing who we are now.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known at the start of your career?

I wish I had known how hard it is to get published. I might have just taken up knitting.

What does this year's NAIDOC Week theme, For Our Elders, mean to you?

I have many Elders as friends and I have known many of them for over forty years. Without their guidance and teaching I could not write my novels and plays. I am in my seventies so I am also accepted as an Elder in my community and find that the respect I receive from Aboriginal young people is wonderful and quite humbling. 

Who are the First Nations authors/illustrators you think everyone should be reading?

There are so many to admire, my favourites are Nardi Simpson, Tony Birch, Alexis Wright, Jackie Huggins, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Jack Davis, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Kevin Gilbert, Eva Johnson and many more.

We want everyone to vote YES in the referendum for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament.

Hear more from Julie Janson at our free NAIDOC Week panel, For Our Elders on Friday 7 July, 11.00am-11.40am. RSVPs are essential.