Debra Dank

Dr Debra Dank is Gudanji/Wakaja and Kalkadoon, from the Barkly Tablelands region on the Northern Territory/Queensland border, a mum, a ‘gramma’ and ‘gargar’ to two granddaughters, a wife and a semiotician. She is currently an Enterprise Fellow with the Adelaide University in South Australia.

For almost 40 years she has worked in primary, secondary and tertiary education roles, including as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, regional consultant, regional manager, senior lecturer, and Head of School (tertiary). She has worked in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory in urban and remote contexts.

Deb is particularly interested in how narrative, in its broadest sense, is practiced in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and what role semiotics plays in that intersect.

This interest led to her 2021 PhD and her subsequent book, We come with this place, which won numerous awards in 2023, including an unprecedented four categories at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, The University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards and the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize, the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and the People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award and the Nonfiction Award at the Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

She has since published a further two books

Passionate about a safe and healthy physical environment, Deb and her family continues to work to protect Country and Aboriginal people's right to maintain identity through kinship with Country at the Beetaloo Basin, where her place is located and being fracked.