Aunty Julie Janson is an established Australian playwright and novelist. She is of Aboriginal descent from the Burruberongal clan of the Darug Nation of the Hawkesbury River, NSW.
Julie’s novel, Benevolence, was published by Magabala Books in June 2020 and released in the US and UK through HarperVia in 2022. Set between 1810 and 1850, and drawing on the author’s Darug Nation background, the novel is a powerful account of the struggle to survive both during and beyond institutionalisation and is one of the first fictionalised accounts of the Parramatta Native Institution. The sequel to this ground-breaking book, Compassion, was published by Magabala in 2024 to critical acclaim.
Julie is also the author of the Miles Franklin longlisted novel Madukka, The River Serpent, published by UWAP in 2021, a unique contemporary crime story exploring Aboriginal deaths in custody, climate change and water theft.
Julie’s poem ‘Acacia Land’ won the prestigious Judith Wright Poetry Prize in 2018 and other her writing credits include many residencies: Asialink in Indonesia; Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency Ireland and the BR Whiting Rome Studio.
Julie is also an established playwright with ten plays produced professionally in Australia, Indonesia and USA. Julie’s plays have been nominated for the AWGIE Award, and shortlisted for the Patrick White Award and the Griffin Award, and include Black Mary, Gunjies and The Eyes of Marege.
Praise for Julie Janson:
“How good it is to hear a Darug voice speaking of Darug history.” – Kate Grenville
“Janson’s writing is evocative…The shame of colonisation is amplified by the proud complexities of the narrative…Muraging’s – and Janson’s – refusal to perform the victim to voyeurs of trauma is an act of defiance.” – The Sunday Age
“[Madukka] is the hard-boiled Australian detective we’ve been waiting for.” – Sydney Morning Herald
“…the text’s undulation evokes the ever-changing interactions between settlers and Aboriginal populations following settlement, giving voice to an oft-overlooked Aboriginal perspective.” – Australian Book Review
“The gut-truths presented in Benevolence are tied to a larger reckoning needed in Australian society – one that involves a centring of First Nation voices, a willingness to address not just a violent history, but a hostile and violent present.” Mascara Reviews
“Compassion” is a long overdue, beautifully written chronicle of the violence and trauma of Black colonial Australian experience.” Paul Daley
