Debra Dank

Debra Dank is a Gudanji / Wakaja and Kalkadoon woman from the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory.

She completed a Master of Education{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-02-07 |title=Our graduates – 2015 |url=https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/student-life-and-services/indigenous-students/nikeri/graduates |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=Deakin University |language=en}} and graduated with a PhD in narrative theory and semiotics at Deakin University in Melbourne in 2021.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-01 |title=Debra Dank for The Stella Shortlist |url=https://thegarretpodcast.com/debra-dank-for-stella-shortlist/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=The Garret |language=en-AU}}

Dank adapted her award-winning book, We Come With This Place, from work towards her PhD thesis.{{Cite news |last=Dow |first=Steve |date=2023-05-22 |title=Debut author Debra Dank breaks records at NSW premier's literary awards |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/22/significantly-shocking-debut-author-debra-dank-breaks-records-at-nsw-premiers-literary-awards |access-date=2023-06-03 |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |date=2023-04-05 |title=We Come With This Place: Debra Dank on her debut and what comes next |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/04/05/229006/we-come-with-this-place-debra-dank-on-her-debut-and-what-comes-next/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |publisher=Books+Publishing}} 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".

Dank has spent around 40 years working in primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and the Northern Territory.{{cite web | title=Rachel Perkins, Dr Debra Dank & Daniel Riley in-conversation with Professor Wesley Enoch AM | website=Home | date=6 March 2025 | url=https://unisa.edu.au/connect/hawke-centre/events-and-exhibitions/events/2025/debra_dank_rachel_perkins/ | access-date=12 May 2025}}

{{As of|2023|May}}, Dank was a lecturer in Indigenous studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

{{as of|2025|March}}, she is Enterprise Fellow with the University of South Australia in Adelaide, a research and teaching position focusing on topics that directly benefit Aboriginal peoples.{{cite web | title=Aborginal Enterprise Fellow | website=Home | url=https://unisa.edu.au/about-unisa/working-at-unisa/vacancies/seeking-aboriginal-enterprise-fellows | access-date=12 May 2025}}

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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20250227070528/https://www.unisa.edu.au/connect/hawke-centre/events-and-exhibitions/events/2025/debra_dank_rachel_perkins/ Rachel Perkins & Dr Debra Dank in-conversation with Professor Wesley Enoch AM] (archived 27 February 2025)

We Come With This Place was included on the 2022 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List, compiled by the Grattan Institute.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-24 |title=Announcing Grattan Institute's 2022 Prime Minister's Summer Reading List |url=https://grattan.edu.au/news/announcing-grattan-institutes-2022-prime-ministers-summer-reading-list/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=Grattan Institute |language=en-AU}} In April 2023 it was shortlisted for the Stella Prize.{{Cite web |last=Lamond |first=Julieanne |date=2023-04-26 |title=Stella Prize shortlist 2023: your guide to 6 gripping, courageous books |url=http://theconversation.com/stella-prize-shortlist-2023-your-guide-to-6-gripping-courageous-books-202958 |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}

At the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Dank won an unprecedented four awards, the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, the Indigenous Writers' Prize, and overall Book of the Year, for We Come With This Place.{{Cite news |last=Jefferson |first=Dee |date=2023-05-22 |title=One book just won a record four out of 14 prizes at $350,000 NSW literary awards |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-22/nsw-premiers-literary-award-winners-debra-dank-indigenous-memoir/102375926 |access-date=2023-06-03}}{{Cite web |last=Knowles |first=Rachael |date=2023-05-23 |title=Debra Dank uses history-making literary win to call out fracking on her Country |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/gudanji-wakaja-made-history-at-nsw-premie/i6d2x3dqo |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=NITV |language=en}}

In July 2023, We Come With This Place won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-05 |title=Dank's 'We Come with This Place' wins ALS Gold Medal |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/07/05/233721/danks-we-come-with-this-place-wins-als-gold-medal/ |access-date=2023-07-10 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}

At the Queensland Literary Awards it won the Nonfiction Book Award{{Cite web |date=2023-09-05 |title=Winners of the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards announced |url=https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/98623 |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=Media statements |publisher=Queensland Government}} and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and the People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-02 |title=Queensland Literary Awards 2023 shortlists |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/08/02/234999/queensland-literary-awards-2023-shortlists/ |access-date=2023-08-02 |publisher=Books+Publishing}} It was also shortlisted for the Nonfiction Award at the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-26 |title=Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2023 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2023/10/26/239949/prime-ministers-literary-awards-2023-shortlists-announced/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}

An extract from We Come With This Place was included in a 2023 NSW Higher School Certificate examination.{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Christopher |date=2023-10-11 |title=HSC students stumped by apricots in first English exam |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hsc-students-stumped-by-apricots-in-first-english-exam-20231011-p5ebgw.html |access-date=2023-10-12 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}

• Ridimbat Langa Ola Biginnini = Reading with Children, parallel text, dual-language book in Kriol and English, Indigenous Literacy Foundation, 2011{{Citation |author1=Dank |first=Debra |title=Ridimbat langa ola biginnini = Reading with children |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191346645 |publication-date=2011 |access-date=3 June 2023 |publisher=Indigenous Literacy Foundation}}
• We Come With This Place, Echo Publishing, 2022{{Citation |author1=Dank |first=Debra |title=We come with this place |date=5 July 2022 |publication-date=2022 |edition=First published 2022 This ebook edition published 2022 |publisher=Echo Publishing |isbn=978-1-76068-740-3}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Deakin University alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of the Sunshine Coast