Next week will be NAIDOC Week – with this year’s theme being “Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud” – but I am jumping the gun a little with a post on a relevant publishing initiative that was announced earlier this year.

This initiative comes from publisher Simon & Schuster, and is that they have created a new First Nations imprint called Bundyi, which will be curated by Dr Anita Heiss, “a proud Wiradyuri woman and one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors”. Simon & Schuster published Heiss’s most recent novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (my review).

Bundyi is, the website says, a Wiradyuri word meaning “to share with me’” The aim is to “focus on cultivating First Nations talent in the industry by publishing First Nations authors, edited and designed by First Nations people”. Heiss, described as Publisher at Large, will be commissioning both fiction and non-fiction writing. She says that “the only way we will see First Nations people truly sovereign in this space, is to have us as publishers of our own stories”, and makes the point that Simon & Schuster understands “that the responsibility for change in the sector lies with the current mainstream publishers acting as mentors, and eventually moving over to allow us to learn, and to do what Australian publishing has needed for a long time: for us to have control over the way we are represented on the page, and in the national narrative”.

And they have started the way they mean to continue with the Bundyi logo being designed by a 100% Aboriginal-owned company, Iscariot media. The logo, which you can see at the link I’ve provided above, “represents the flow of the three rivers of Wiradyuri country – the Kilari, the Marrambidya and the Wambool – as well as the flow of creativity”.

What can we expect?

S&S’s page, linked above, says that the first titles in the imprint will be published this year, but doesn’t name them. However, in late May, through Canberra’s wonderful Meet The Author convenor, Colin Steele, who is also one of my major sources of literary news, I received a news item from Books+Publishing. It said that Bundyi had “acquired world rights to a new commercial novel by Larissa Behrendt”, and that the book was the result of a brainstorm between Behrendt and her good friend Anita Heiss. It is to be a First Nations take on Pride and prejudice!

Heiss said that “It didn’t take long for us to come up with the idea of Larissa, an Austen aficionado, writing a version of Pride and Prejudice through her lens, as a Euahlayai/Gamilaroi woman”. Behrendt added that “As a long-time friend and admirer of her work, I am beyond excited to be working with Anita on this project. I love Jane Austen, and the idea of translating the characters and story arcs through a First Nations lens is an idea that is close to my heart. Anita has been a trailblazer with new writing, and I am proud to be following in her footsteps.”

That Behrendt is a fan of Austen won’t be news to those who read her novel After story (my review) in which a woman takes her mother on a literary tour of England, so this will be interesting – even to someone like me who is not normally a fan of prequels, sequels and retellings. Behrendt has a seriously impressive cv. Not only is she an award-winning author, but she is a filmmaker and host of the program Speaking Out on ABC Radio, the Distinguished Professor at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology Sydney, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law – and more. We have to wait a bit for her book, though, as it’s not due to be published until 2026.

Meanwhile, Books+Publishing named two books which will be published by Bundyi before Behrendt’s – Stan Grant’s memoir Murriyang and Tasma Walton’s historical fiction novel, I am Nan’nert’garrook. These align with the imprint’s focus as listed on its homepage:

• Non-fiction: memoir, autobiography, biography, essays
• Commercial fiction: romance / chick lit, historical fiction, contemporary fiction.

This new imprint is exciting news for all of us interested in First Nations Australian writing. It may not, it seems, be focusing on the edgier end of town, but there is room for all, particularly if we want more Australians to read First Nations writing. If you are interested, I suggest you keep an eye on Bundyi’s homepage for further news. I plan to.