MELANIE MUNUNGGURR-WILLIAMS

Melanie Mununggurr-Williams is the 2018 Australian Poetry Slam Champion and a Djapu writer from Yirrkala in East Arnhem Land. She is one of about 4600 speakers of Yolnu-Matha and a mentor for young Indigenous women in programs across the Northern Territory.

Melanie spent the last decade working with families, young people and children involved with juvenile justice and department of children and families. Her writing is often focused around family, place and her identity as an Aboriginal woman.

Melanie recently toured North America including Banff Art Centre, Blue Metropolis Festival, Montreal and the Nuyorican Poets Café. In 2019, she’s touring festivals in Byron Bay, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Ubud, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.

Her first book of poetry is set to be published by Penguin in 2020. Other publications include “Grey” a short story in the anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia in 2018.

Watch Melanie perform her poems at Sydney Opera House – “I Run” and “Double Threat”