Alison Whittaker facts for kids
Alison Whittaker is an Aboriginal Australian poet and a smart thinker from the Gomeroi people. She is a writer and works as a senior researcher at the University of Technology Sydney.
Early Life and Learning
Alison Whittaker grew up in a place called Gunnedah, which is near the Namoi River in New South Wales, Australia. Her mother is Gomeroi, and her father is not Indigenous.
She studied a lot! She earned a degree in writing and cultural studies, and also a law degree (called an LLB) in 2016, both from the University of Technology Sydney. Then, in 2017, she went to Harvard University in the United States and got another law degree (an LLM). While she was there, she was a Fulbright Scholar, which is a special award for students who show great potential.
Amazing Poetry Collections
Alison Whittaker writes powerful poetry. Her first collection of poems, called Lemons in the Chicken Wire, came out in 2016. She said this book was "a call to the humanity of Indigenous queer and trans mob." For this book, she won a special award called the black&write! fellowship. People said her poems were "highly original" and full of "stunning imagery."
Her second poetry collection, BlakWork, was published in 2018. This book won the 2019 Judith Wright Calanthe Award. Reviewers said BlakWork was a very important collection that made people think deeply about Australia's history. It was described as a mix of poetry, personal stories, news reports, and even legal documents. The book talks about important issues like stolen land, the forced removal of Aboriginal children, and unfair ideas about Aboriginal people. BlakWork was also nominated for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.
In 2020, Alison Whittaker edited a collection of poems called Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power. She even shared readings from it at the 2020 Edinburgh International Book Festival online. This book was praised for sharing "insights from some of the most original and talented First Nations writers." One reviewer called her "Australia's most important recently emerged poet."
Important Research Work
Alison Whittaker also does important academic research. She studies how laws affect Indigenous peoples, especially focusing on First Nations deaths in custody. This means she looks into why Indigenous people sometimes die while in police custody. She has written many articles and contributed to books on these topics. She has also written several pieces for The Guardian newspaper.
