The Endeavour House Writer in Residence Program has announced its inaugural winner, historian Dr Naomi Parry.

The Writer in Residence Program, supported by Endeavour House and The Australia Institute, provides an AUD $2500 per week stipend for two weeks, office space and accommodation for an Australian writer to work from The Level at Endeavour House in Canberra.

Dr Naomi Parry’s winning residency project, is a story about Aboriginal warrior Musquito a second generation post invasion narrative of a man displaced from his birth country to both Norfolk Island and Tasmania, his ongoing struggles with the new colonial order and his eventual career as a bushranger.

“The high quality and competitiveness of the applicant pool was truly impressive. With only very few exceptions, the committee felt that any one of the applicants could have been merited,” said Ben Oquist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.

“Naomi Parry’s project about Aboriginal warrior Musquito stood out as a story that needs to be told,” said Melinda Smith, selection panel member and poetry editor at The Canberra Times.

“The resulting book will be a fascinating read but also an important forward step in the journey to fully understand and acknowledge all aspects of Australia’s past.

“Naomi Parry’s proposal was backed by solid preliminary research and a clear vision for what would be achieved in the two weeks,” Oquist said.

“I am grateful to the judges and the Australia Institute for the opportunity to be the first Endeavour House Writer-in-Residence,” Naomi Parry said.

“It gives me time and space to work on something I have been trying to bring to fruition for over a decade.

“The capital of modern Australia, Canberra, seems the perfect place to contemplate Musquito’s life, which was lived on the frontiers of colonial NSW and Tasmania, and is a vital story of the foundation of our nation,” Ms Parry said.

The Endeavour House Writer in Residence Program is a joint initiative of Ethical Property Commercial Limited and The Australia Institute

Endeavour House Writer in Residence 2017

Dr Naomi Parry — Brief CV

Book

Naomi Parry and Brad Manera with Will Davies and Stephen Garton, New South Wales and the Great War, Haberfield: Longueville Media, 2016. ISBN: 978-0-9943863-7-3

Media

Who Do You Think You Are? Series 7, episode 4: David Wenham, Artemis International/SBS

Indigenous convicts: Khoisan, Maori and Aboriginal exiles, Hindsight, ABC Radio National,

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/aboriginal-convicts/5283106

Awards

2015 National and State Libraries Australasia Fellowship from the State Library of NSW

Shortlisted for Hazel Rowley Literary Award and State Library CH Currey Fellowship

2005 Dr Eric Dark Varuna Fellowship