Storytelling culture

Lilly Brown is new at the helm of Broome’s Magabala Books, Australia’s leading Indigenous publishing house.

Story Jared Thomas  Photo Michael Jalaru Torres

An Aboriginal parents’ playgroup meets on a Monday morning at Magabala Books in Broome, WA, and the recently appointed CEO, Lilly Brown, takes special delight in watching the babies toddle across the lawn outside her office window. A First Nations publishing house is the perfect home for a playgroup and it’s one example of the many roles Magabala Books plays that sets it apart from other Australian publishers.

When Lilly tells the origin story of the organisation, her pride is palpable. “This organisation is incredible,” she says. “There’s nothing like Magabala when you’re talking about arts and culture and Aboriginal self-determination. Magabala Books is an award-winning not-for-profit publishing house that started in the late 1980s when over 500 Aboriginal elders, leaders and community members came together from across the Kimberley as a response to the need to keep Indigenous stories safe and to protect Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Their solution was to create an Aboriginal community-controlled publishing house.”