Meet the author of 'Madukka The River Serpent'

On June 30, the South Coast Writers Centre revealed an exciting Writers Festival program taking in everything from crime writing to horror, politics to poetry, and podcasting to literary fiction. Ahead of the festival – at Wollongong Town Hall from August 18-20 – meet one of the authors.

Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal nation. She is a novelist, playwright, and award-winning poet. Her recent novel, Madukka The River Serpent (UWA Publishing), is an Indigenous crime novel that was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2023. Benevolence was published by Magabala in 2020 and also by HarperCollins in the US and UK in August 2022. It was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award 2022 and nominated for the NIB Literary Award 2020 and the Voss Literary Award 2020.

Julie is appearing at two sessions – 'Unearthing the Hidden Dark' and 'Writing the Everywhen' – at the 2023 South Coast Writers Festival and in the lead-up to these events, we asked Julie about her recent projects.

What is your latest project?

I am currently completing a new historical novel entitled Compassion to be published by Magabala 2024. It is the second novel of a trilogy about the Hawkesbury River and Newcastle region. It follows on from my earlier novel Benevolence, published by Magabala, 2020. Compassion is set from 1836 to 1860 and traces the tempestuous life of Nell James alias Duringah. A Burruberongal horse thief and rebellious young Koori woman.

Why this work?

I have researched my Aboriginal family history and found a few historical details on Trove about my two times great-grandmother who was born in Windsor. She was in her twenties when she stole fowls, cattle and a herd of horses but escaped prison around 1855. I thought she was a fascinating character to explore.

What do you love about her story?

My Nell James character is based on a real person (Mary Thomas) and she is defiant in the face of NSW colonial authorities. Nell is courageous, wild and passionate. So little has been recorded about these Koori people so I was filled with an urgent need to create her story. I wrote a play, Black Mary, many years ago and it was produced for the Olympic Games Festival of the Dreaming by Belvoir St Theatre. That play is about a Worimi horse thief, Maryanne Bugg, and it inspired my new novel.

What challenges have you run into?

I have written the new novel in first person, past tense, and it has been a revelation. It has a visceral quality in the raw voices of characters. It can be very memoir like in its sound. The historical detail takes time and deep research to uncover. Then I tend to have to edit a lot of it out as it is too much exposition. I have carried out appropriate Aboriginal protocols around the Newcastle region.

What are you most excited about for your event at the South Coast Writers Festival in August?

I love the South Coast (where I live on Yuin country) and I love Wollongong. The festival will give me an opportunity to meet fellow writers and wonderful readers without whom, us writers would not survive as writers.

You can see Julie in Unearthing the Hidden Dark at Wollongong Town Hall on 19 August, 4.30pm and in Writing the Everywhen on 20 August at 12.30pm as part of the South Coast Writers Festival. Tickets available here.