Congratulations to Bundjalung Kullilli creator Daniel Browning and Trawlwoolway descendent and creator Neika Lehman, who have been awarded Magabala Books’ AIC Creative Grants of $10,000 each.

Daniel Browning

Daniel will use the grant to continue research for his second book, a literary non-fiction with working title ‘Parallel Lives’.

“I’m so very grateful for this incredible opportunity to realise my next literary project with the support of Magabala” he said.  “The AIC Grant will enable me to undertake the research necessary to tell the intertwined stories of two Aboriginal men who went to Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their stories challenge the existing narrative of an isolated, defeated and incurious people and overturn the one-sided history we are taught about our mobs in eastern Australia. It makes perfect sense to me that Magabala would get behind this project, as the country's leading Indigenous publisher, and enable storytelling that deepens our collective knowledge of First Nations people, the lives of our ancestors and Australian history, effecting real change in the process.”

Neika Lehman

Neika will be supported to work on their manuscript, an untitled collection of poetry, fiction & archival images, set in their home of lutruwita (Tasmania). It is inspired by Neika’s time in the Tasmanian colonial archives, looking for further details on ancestral stories told by elders and family.

Daniel Browning and Neika Lehman will be supported to complete their creative development projects throughout 2024. Funding will support travel, research, and manuscript development.  

The AIC Creative Grant is an award of $10,000 for a First Nations storyteller, writer or artist working in any genre to continue work on a manuscript under development. Grant recipients were selected through a competitive application process and expressions of interest came from across Australia. 

Magabala AIC Creative Grants are made possible thanks to the generous support of our partnership with Australian Indigenous Coffee. For more info, see AIC Creative Grants.