13/09/2026
I’m not racist but… | Dr Anita Heiss
On 18 November 1999 Dr Anita Heiss presented the Jessie Street National Women’s Library Lunch Hour Talk.
About Dr Anita Heiss
Dr Anita Heiss is a member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW and one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors. Her publications include the historical novel “Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence”, “Dhuuluu-Yala (To Talk Straight) – Publishing Aboriginal Literature”, and “The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature”, co-authored with Peter Minter. Her adult fiction includes “Not Meeting Mr Right”, “Avoiding Mr Right”, “Manhattan Dreaming”, “Paris Dreaming” and “Tiddas”. “Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms” was longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize. She also edited “Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia”, which was named Small Publisher Adult Book of the Year at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards.
Anita has also made a significant contribution to children’s literature, including “Kicking Goals with Goodesy and Magic”, co-written with Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin, and “Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon”, developed with students from La Perouse Public School.
A passionate advocate for Indigenous literacy, Anita has worked in remote communities, encouraging young Indigenous Australians to write and share their stories.
Anita is a Lifetime Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and an Ambassador for the GO Foundation, Worawa Aboriginal College and the Sydney Swans. She is Publisher at Large for Bundyi Publishing, a First Nations imprint of Simon & Schuster, and continues to work as an author, public speaker, MC and advocate for Indigenous literature.
Summary of the presentation
Our final speaker for 1999 allowed the series to finish on a real high. Anita gave of herself with energy, enthusiasm and commitment. She provoked much laughter, but there was always a serious intent behind the comedy pieces.
At the outset Anita declared she was there to talk about her writing, not to answer questions on Aboriginal health, housing, land rights, ATSIC etc. But of course, her work makes effective use of such issues, operating through irony and comedy; 'taking the p**s' as she says.
On the issues of political correctness : everyone now wants a blackfella at everything, whether or not it's relevant. Anita feels she was a victim of that when she was the only Aboriginal invited to the Byron Bay Writers Festival a few years ago. Out of that experience she wrote the poetry collection Token Koori. It also gave her the idea for a skit that was broadcast on Radio National. Here is an edited version. Anita works for Rent-a-Koori − we hear what happens when a customer calls.
“Token Kooris − blackfellas for hire. We provide Aboriginals for weddings, parties, panels, protests, conferences, christenings, cabarets, corroborrees, homecomings, house warmings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, balls, barbecues, benefits and for all denominations. All major credit cards and government cheques accepted. Your call is very important to us. Please hold. ... Sorry to keep you waiting. How may I help you? So you want a Koori - who looks like a Koori of course...They must have dark skin and a fat nose and skinny ankles... Oh, you want them to speak pidgin? Right. So what is it you want them to do? Speak on land rights, history, art, kinship system, Aboriginal law, sacred sites - oh, and sacred rites as well. But you don't want them to mention genocide or invasion?...You want them to play the didgeridoo, cook bush tucker throw a boomerang...and do a traditional dance. Right Yes, Well, for all of that we charge $250 a day for a surrogate Aborigine and only $100 for the real thing, because you know they don't get paid the same, right?”
The above gives some idea of the flavour of Anita's talk. She also read us her alternative preamble to the constitution Anita had some criticism of the Australian history curriculum in our high schools. She recounted an experience at one school she was visiting, talking to senior students, and she could not get any response from them. She did not know if they had ever met an Aboriginal before, so she started asking them questions. Had they read Sally Morgan's book? But they said they were reading Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith − this was in 1998. Anita asked why they were reading that and the teacher replied 'that was all the library had'. So, thought Anita, rather than read nothing, they were reading a book by a white person about an Aboriginal axe-murderer!
Anita's parents (mother born on a mission near Cowra; father Austrian) have been her inspiration. She did her university honours thesis on the 1967 referendum and citizenship rights for Aborigines because, at that time, her father who was not an Australian citizen, was counted in the census; her sister − the daughter of a white man, was counted; heads of cattle were counted; but her Aboriginal mother was not.
Anita said that at the age of 22, she vowed she would fight until she was in tears about stuff, but at the age of 31, she now knows which fights she can win. She has learned to direct her energies in different ways. It would seem from her talk this day that she is fighting the good fight very successfully; with wit, humour and disarming honesty. Buy her books, watch her perform, listen to her voice. Be glad we have Anita Heiss to push us along towards a better understanding of her people − and of ourselves.
Jane Pollard prepared the report on the Lunch Hour Talk presented by Anita Heiss on 18 November 1999 for the May 2000 issue of Jessie Street National Women’s Library Newsletter. A recording and transcript of the talk is held by the Jessie Street National Women’s Library.
www.nationalwomenslibrary.org.au
