Emerging Black Writing and the University of Queensland Press

2009 celebrates the 20th anniversary of the David Unaipon Award, the important national prize for Indigenous writing established by the University of Queensland Press (UQP) in 1988. The Black Australian Writers (BAW) series followed in 1990, leading to the publication of prize-winning and highly commended submissions. It is vital that the rich tapestry of these emerging Indigenous voices is celebrated for their subjects and achievement;
the focus here is, however, on the responsibilities and function of the publisher in the cultural field in the conception and implementation of the prize and series. Critical to their success was a suspension of belief about cultural values for Indigenous and Black writing. UQP did respond to critiques by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait community and others. UQP began, then, to make a substantial contribution to the production of a rich and diverse lode of Indigenous literature