Yvette Holt

Yvette Henry Holt (born 1971) is an Aboriginal Australian poet, essayist, academic, researcher and comedian, of the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman nations of Queensland. She came to prominence with her first published collection of poetry, Anonymous Premonition, in 2008. She lives in the desert in Central Australia.

Early years and education

Yvette Holt was born in 1971 in Inala, Brisbane. Her family, who are of the Bidjara and Wakaman peoples of central and far north Queensland (mainly the Atherton Tablelands), have lived in Inala for many decades. Holt also has Yiman ancestry.

Aged 18, Holt started working for Australia Post (then part of the Australian Public Service). After ten years of work, she travelled to the US, where she conceived her daughter, Cheyenne.

After enrolling in 2001, Holt graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), with a degree in Adult Education and Community Management (Business) in 2004.

Poetry

In 2008, Holt's first collection of poetry (for which she had won the David Unaipon Award in 2005), Anonymous Premonition, was published by the University of Queensland Press. The award had granted A$15,000 and also guaranteed publication of her work through the University of Queensland Press.

Her poems have been included in many anthologies, and translated into many languages.

Other work and activities

Holt has done counselling work for the Indigenous female prisoner’s rights organisation, Sisters Inside.

She has undertaken research on Indigenous Australian literature, for the "Black Words" subset of AustLit, a resource for Australian literature published by the University of Queensland.

Holt has a keen interest in Indigenous social justice issues, especially for women, and has spoken around Australia and abroad on family and domestic violence. She mentors youth and also runs community workshops on writing and Indigenous Australian literature. She has also worked as a stand-up comedian, and creates photographs of "erotic desert femin_artistry discoursed through colonial votive imagery".

In 2009 she moved to Central Australia to live at Hermannsburg, Northern Territory, where she has been working as a teacher and researcher, working on the development of an employment strategy.

In 2019, Holt received one of three Norma Redpath Studio residencies, one of three awarded as part of that year's Hot Desk Fellowships awarded by the Wheeler Centre.

Current roles

Holt lectures in Aboriginal Women's Studies at the University of Queensland, a department created around 2008, and continues her research for Austlit.

As of 2021, Holt is chair of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN). She is overseeing the publication of the FN COVID-19 Anthology 2021, in association with Australian Poetry, and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Recognition and awards

• 2003: UTS Human Rights Award in the category of Reconciliation for "outstanding contribution towards the elevation of social justice for Indigenous Australians"
• 2005: David Unaipon Award (in the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards) for an unpublished Indigenous Australian author, for Anonymous Premonition
• Other prizes for Anonymous Premonition after publication:
  • 2008: Scanlon Prize for Indigenous Poetry
  • 2008: Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing
  • 2010: Kate Challis RAKA Award
• 2018: "Mother(s) Native Tongue", highly commended in the 2018 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize
• 2019: Recipient, Varuna Fellowship for her poetry manuscript "Hands of My Mother"
• 2019: Recipient, Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund

External links

• Yvette Holt - Deadly Funny National Final and Showcase 2019 on YouTube. Recorded at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for NITV.