The Blak & Bright Writers Festival returns to Naarm for four days of First Nations panels, poetry and keynotes from 3 to 6 September 2026.
The Blak & Bright Writers Festival has revealed its full 2026 program, four days of First Nations storytelling right across Naarm.
The Blak & Bright Writers Festival runs from 3 to 6 September 2026, packing panels, workshops, keynotes and spoken word into venues around the city. Plenty of it costs nothing to attend, and paid sessions top out at $25 a head.
Blak & Bright Writers Festival
- 3 – 6 September 2026
- The Wheeler Centre and various venues, Naarm/Melbourne
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
The centrepiece is The Right to Offend, a Wheeler Centre panel bringing together Evelyn Araluen, Melissa Lucashenko, Chelsea Watego, Tony Armstrong and Rudi Bremer to work through who gets to speak freely and who gets punished for telling the truth. It digs into censorship, resistance and why First Nations truth-telling still rattles institutions and media. Araluen also returns for a keynote with Dr Tiriki Onus on what happens when a nation’s story about itself starts to come apart.
There’s a run of free panels too. One spotlights Blak women’s voices with Jasmin McGaughey, Samantha Faulkner, Chelsea Watego, Julie Janson and Kirli Saunders, while Tasma Walton, Jared Thomas, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe and Rob Waters trace how words get passed down between generations. Queer Blak storytelling gets its own conversation with Jake Gablonski, Ellen van Neerven, Luke Patterson and Elijah Money, and a separate session pulls in Brooke Blurton, Zac James, Julie Janson and Claire G. Coleman on identity and memory. Tony Birch also hosts a free workshop on voice, place and character.
The lighter end of the program is worth a look. Dungeons & Dragons & Damper hands you a D20 and a plate of damper for a live campaign built on an original story by Claire G. Coleman. Gathering is a free, one-night evening of story and community with a performance from Luke Currie-Richardson, spoken word sets come from Ziggy Ramo, Kirli Saunders and Dakota Feirer, and younger festival-goers get a program run by Iluka Sax-Williams and Maree Clarke exploring Blaktivism, art and hands-on making.
For more information, head here.
