Debra Dank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Book of the Year
- Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- Indigenous Writers' Prize
Debra Dank | |
|---|---|
 Dank at the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards | |
| Occupation | Memoirist |
| Alma mater | Deakin University |
| Notable works | We Come With This Place |
| Notable awards | New 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 won an unprecedented four prizes at the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.
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
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
Dank has spent around 40 years working in primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and the Northern Territory.[1]
Dank was a lecturer in Indigenous studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast from February to September 2023.[4]
In August 2023 she was appointed 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
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]
