Dungala-Kaiela Writing Awards creating connection to community

This year, there are three categories on offer:

● story/yarn/article/play;

● poem/lyric/rap; and

● Aboriginal languages of the region.

Four sections will be open in each category for juniors, youth, open submissions and elders.

Dungala-Kaiela Writing Awards co-ordinator Joyce Doyle said the awards started among a small group of people at the Goulburn Valley Library Koori Information Resource Centre in 2012.

“They started to write, and put stories down - and then stories started to get told within community, and talked about,” she said.

“That provided that platform for the community to come forward and have a voice and a story and a connection back to the library,” she said.

“Our people wouldn't go into the library - they felt isolated. So that was a way to come forward - write your stories, share your stories, and now people are walking in and feel comfortable because they've put stories down.”

Ms Doyle said a "whole mass" of community stories had come from the awards since their inception.

“Stories that elders probably wouldn't have put on paper otherwise, young kids telling stories about how they want to be around culture, connecting to our areas around here,” she said.

“Through our 10 years, we've gone from a small handful of people to an incredible amount of applicants.”

Dungala-Kaiela Writing Awards co-ordinator Sharon Charles said there were up to 90 entries in 2019.

“We get a lot of junior entries, and we found elders were writing, so we opened up another section for them, and that's been really good . . . it's really important to have that,” she said.

“You don't have to live here to enter - it's that connection to community.”

Goulburn Valley Libraries senior projects librarian Jan Sutton said the awards were a way for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to continue their strong storytelling and yarning tradition.

“Language is intrinsic to culture and identity,” she said.

“Writing is one way language can be maintained, and kept alive, and given, and transmitted to others.”

Translation is requested for all Aboriginal language entries.

Written entries that were already received in 2020 will be kept in the extended 2020-21 award.

In the future, the group is considering running awards every second year and running writing workshops with past winners and is planning to publish a book filled with stories from the region.

“COVID-19 made us stop and think about what we were doing, and that was a good thing,” Ms Doyle said.

“This is a platform we've provided so indigenous people can have a voice . . . it's so much bigger than just writing.”

Entry forms are available from all branches of Goulburn Valley Libraries or can be downloaded at www.gvlibraries.com.au/dungala-kaiela-writing-awards