West Australian novelist and professor Kim Scott will open the festival as part of a celebration on the identities, stories and resistance of Australia’s First Nations people. Scott – who is a descendent of the Noongar people and was the first Indigenous author to win the Miles Franklin Award – will discuss his literary career, in which he has reconstructed narratives of Indigenous experience and challenged existing histories in novels like Benang and his most recent work, Taboo. Stick around for performances by the Mission Songs Project and hit the dancefloor when DJ Sovereign Trax – AKA Hannah Donnelly – drops music by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
Want more Melbourne Writers Festival suggestions? Check out our top picks of the festival.