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Debra Dank

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Debra Dank
Dank at the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Dank at the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
OccupationMemoirist
Alma materDeakin University
Notable worksWe Come With This Place
Notable awardsNew South Wales Premier's Literary Awards

Debra Dank is an Aboriginal Australian author and academic. She is known for her 2022 memoir We Come With This Place, which an unprecedented four prizes at the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Early life and education

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Debra Dank is a Gudanji / Wakaja and Kalkadoon woman from the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory.[1]

She completed a Master of Education[2] and graduated with a PhD in narrative theory and semiotics at Deakin University in Melbourne in 2021.[3]

Writing career

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Dank adapted her award-winning book, We Come With This Place, from work towards her PhD thesis.[4][5] She was encouraged by her supervisor to shape the book without chapters to allow what she described as "nonlinear storying as it exists in my community".[5]

Teaching

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Dank has spent around 40 years working in primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and the Northern Territory.[1]

As of May 2023, Dank was a lecturer in Indigenous studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast.[4]

As of March 2025, she is Enterprise Fellow with the University of South Australia in Adelaide,[1] a research and teaching position focusing on topics that directly benefit Aboriginal peoples.[6]

Other activities

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Dank was due to join a discussion about the role of storytelling, hosted by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in partnership with WOMADelaide Planet Talks, along with filmmaker Rachel Perkins, and led by playwright Wesley Enoch, in March 2025. However, she was unable to attend owing to Cyclone Alfred in Queensland.[1][7]

Recognition and awards

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We Come With This Place was included on the 2022 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List, compiled by the Grattan Institute.[8] In April 2023 it was shortlisted for the Stella Prize.[9]

At the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Dank won an unprecedented four awards, the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, the Indigenous Writers' Prize, and overall Book of the Year, for We Come With This Place.[10][11]

In July 2023, We Come With This Place won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal.[12]

At the Queensland Literary Awards it won the Nonfiction Book Award[13] and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and the People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.[14] It was also shortlisted for the Nonfiction Award at the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.[15]

An extract from We Come With This Place was included in a 2023 NSW Higher School Certificate examination.[16]

Works

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  • Ridimbat Langa Ola Biginnini = Reading with Children, parallel text, dual-language book in Kriol and English, Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2011[17]
  • We Come With This Place, Echo Publishing, 2022[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Rachel Perkins, Dr Debra Dank & Daniel Riley in-conversation with Professor Wesley Enoch AM". Home. 6 March 2025. Retrieved 12 May 2025.
  2. ^ "Our graduates – 2015". Deakin University. 7 February 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Debra Dank for The Stella Shortlist". The Garret. 1 June 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b Dow, Steve (22 May 2023). "Debut author Debra Dank breaks records at NSW premier's literary awards". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  5. ^ a b "We Come With This Place: Debra Dank on her debut and what comes next". Books+Publishing. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Aborginal Enterprise Fellow". Home. Retrieved 12 May 2025.
  7. ^ Rachel Perkins & Dr Debra Dank in-conversation with Professor Wesley Enoch AM (archived 27 February 2025)
  8. ^ "Announcing Grattan Institute's 2022 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List". Grattan Institute. 24 November 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  9. ^ Lamond, Julieanne (26 April 2023). "Stella Prize shortlist 2023: your guide to 6 gripping, courageous books". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  10. ^ Jefferson, Dee (22 May 2023). "One book just won a record four out of 14 prizes at $350,000 NSW literary awards". ABC News. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  11. ^ Knowles, Rachael (23 May 2023). "Debra Dank uses history-making literary win to call out fracking on her Country". NITV. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  12. ^ "Dank's 'We Come with This Place' wins ALS Gold Medal". Books+Publishing. 5 July 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  13. ^ "Winners of the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards announced". Media statements. Queensland Government. 5 September 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  14. ^ "Queensland Literary Awards 2023 shortlists". Books+Publishing. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  15. ^ "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2023 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 26 October 2023. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  16. ^ Harris, Christopher (11 October 2023). "HSC students stumped by apricots in first English exam". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  17. ^ Dank, Debra (2011), Ridimbat langa ola biginnini = Reading with children, Indigenous Literacy Foundation, retrieved 3 June 2023
  18. ^ Dank, Debra (5 July 2022), We come with this place (First published 2022 This ebook edition published 2022 ed.), Echo Publishing (published 2022), ISBN 978-1-76068-740-3
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