Learn strategies for teaching early Australian Colonial history with contemporary literature and gain valuable insights from Dr Heiss’ research, writing and educational resources.

Dr Heiss will discuss Dirrayawadha (Rise Up), a groundbreaking historical novel about resistance, resilience and love during the frontier wars and share resources to support your teaching.

The content of this workshop supports the Australian Curriculum for Senior Secondary English, Year 4 History, Year 5 History and Year 9 History: Making and transforming a nation (1750-1914).

Teachers wishing to claim 2 hours of TQI accredited PL will be required to complete a take-home written reflection task (supplied at the event).

About Anita Heiss

Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author (or editor) of over 20 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent.

As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024.

Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai.

Anita released Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) in about the frontier war in Bathurst in 2024. Her most recent novel is Red Dust Running.

Anita enjoys running, eating chocolate and being a creative disruptor.

About Dirrayawadha (Rise Up)

Bathurst, 1820s

Miinaa was a young girl when the white ghosts first arrived. She remembers the day they raised a piece of cloth and renamed her homeland 'Bathurst'. Now she lives at Cloverdale and works for a white family who have settled there.

The Nugents are kind, but Miinaa misses her miyagan. His brother, Windradyne, is a Wiradyuri leader, and visits when he can, bringing news of unrest across their ngurambang. Miinaa hopes the violence will not come to Cloverdale.

When Irish convict Daniel O'Dwyer arrives at the settlement, Miinaa's life is transformed again. The pair are magnetically drawn to each other and begin meeting at the bila in secret. Dan understands how it feels to be displaced, but they still have a lot to learn about each other. Can their love survive their differences and the turmoil that threatens to destroy everything around them?

From the bestselling author of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) comes another groundbreaking historical novel about resistance, resilience and love during the frontier wars.

Buy Dirrayawadha (Rise Up)