Story: Ruby’s Reward
An eminent Aboriginal author receives top award for a lifetime of educating others.
Prominent Aboriginal author and historian Dr Ruby Langford Ginibi was honoured with the 2005 Australia Council for the Arts Writers Emeritus Award at a special ceremony at the Sydney Writers Festival in May this year.
The $50,000 Writers Emeritus Award is one of the highest honours in Australian literature. It recognises the achievements of Australian writers over the age of 65 who have made an outstanding contribution to the field and created an acclaimed body of work.
Dr Langford Ginibi’s lifelong contribution to Australian literature has spanned autobiography, history and politics.
Noted for her representations of urban Aboriginality, Dr Langford Ginibi is the author of four non-fiction books, as well as numerous essays, poems and short stories.
Her major works include the groundbreaking Don’t Take Your Love to Town, an account of the struggles faced by Aboriginal women; a collection of short stories Real Deadly; her account of her return to her birthplace on the north coast of NSW, My BundjalungPeople; and the story of experiences of her son and other Aboriginal men in custody; Haunted by the Past.
“As a proud elder of the Bundjalung nation in northeast NSW, I have spent the past 30 years educating white and multicultural Australia about Aboriginal history, culture and politics,” she says. “It’s an honour to be recognised by this award.”