Julie Janson - Benevolence

In Benevolence, acclaimed Indigenous playwright, poet and author Julie Janson tells a compelling first-contact story from an Aboriginal perspective for perhaps the first time in novel form. 

Born around 1813, Darug woman Muraging (Mary James) is among the earliest Darug generations to experience the impact of British colonisation – a time of cataclysmic change and violence, but also remarkable survival and resistance.

This conversation will take place on Zoom. Julie will be in-conversation with Alice Ansara. 

Join the event on Zoom:

Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86309358228?pwd=QnpsSHJYQjl1bjRiRWcrd0dqQ21nQT09

Meeting ID: 863 0935 8228

Password: will be sent as part of your e-ticket after you register. 

About the Book

At an early age Muraging is given over to the Parramatta Native School by her Darug father. Fleeing the school in pursuit of love, she embarks on a journey of discovery and a search for a safe place to make her home. Spanning the years 1816–35, Benevolence is set around the Hawkesbury River area, the home of the Darug people, in Parramatta and Sydney.

Julie Janson’s intensely visual prose interweaves historical events with detailed characterisation – she shatters stereotypes and gives voice to an Aboriginal experience of early-settlement.

About the Author

Julie Janson's career as a playwright began when she wrote and directed plays in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. She is now a novelist and award-winning poet. Julie is a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal Nation. 

She is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, 2016 and winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, 2019. Her novels include, The Crocodile Hotel, Cyclops Press 2015 and The Light Horse Ghost, Nibago 2018. Julie has written and produced plays, including two at Belvoir St Theatre – Black Mary and Gunjies, published by Aboriginal Studies Press 1996. 

About the Moderator

Alice Ansara is an actor across film, TV and theatre, performing for major theatre companies across Australia and film credits garnering her AFI nominations and various awards. As an ensemble member and dramaturg at the Sydney Theatre Company she worked with Australia’s leading contemporary playwrights and as a community radio broadcaster she interviews and makes radio documentaries. Alice is also an interviewer for the National Film and Sound Archive’s Oral History.