Less than one in 10 Australian books published by people of color

People of color are significantly underrepresented in the ranks of published authors in Australia, according to a new report from the University of Victoria.

But the first-ever count of First Nations people and people of color found that the percentage of published Indigenous authors matched almost precisely the 3.2% of the population who identified as Indigenous in the 2021 census.

The report examined the cultural identity of authors of 1,531 books published in 2018. These included novels, non-fiction, poetry, young adult books and picture books. While 3% of authors were Indigenous, only 7% of books were written by people of color. According to recent statistics, around one in four Australians come from a non-European background.

Lead researcher Natalie Kon-yu, a lecturer in creative writing and literary studies at the university, said the number of people of color with published works was “really low”. The report defines people of color “as roughly of non-European descent [which is also the] OECD definition”.

“The issue is wider, about how Australia sees itself, who it still sees as belonging happily to the idea of ​​Australia.”

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Kon-yu said not everyone in Australia was able to tell their story, and the report confirmed a long-suspected imbalance.

“Indigenous culture is the first culture of this nation and we believe their stories should be better represented in the industry. But how much of our national literature comes from this population?

She said the number of books published in Australia in 2018 was close to 5,000 but some categories such as cookbooks and others were excluded.