Boori Monty Pryor (born 1950) is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

author best known as a storyteller and as the inaugural

Australian Children's Laureate The Australian Children's Laureate is a role appointed to an Australian children's author and/or illustrator with the purpose of promoting the power of reading to children. It is a two-year role and was inaugurated in 2011, for the 2012–2013 pe ...

(20122013).

Early life and family

Pryor is descended from the

Birri Gubba The Birri Gubba people, formerly known as Biria, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Language The Birri Gubba people spoke a number of languages in the Biri language group. Country The Biria held sway over some , ...

nation of the Bowen region and the Kunggandji people from

Yarrabah Yarrabah (traditionally ''Jarrabah'' in the Gunggandji language spoken by the indigenous Gunggandji people) is a coastal town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah, Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. In the , t ...

, near

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. His father was Monty Prior.

Career

Pryor had a long career communicating

Aboriginal Australian culture Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. The words "law" and "lore", the latter ...

to schools in Australia, performing dances, playing

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

, and storytelling, before turning to writing books. He has worked in film and television, sport, and music. In 1986, Boori had an acting role alongside his brother Paul Pryor in “Women of the Sun”. In his keynote address for the 2013

Come Out Festival DreamBIG Children's Festival, formerly Come Out Festival or Come Out Children's Festival, is a large biennial arts festival for schools and families held in South Australia. History The festival began as the Come Out Festival in 1974 as part of ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, Pryor spoke about the importance of storytelling, performance, and dance in engaging children with literacy, literature, and Indigenous cultures. Pryor was an ambassador for the National Year of Reading (Australia) in 2012.

In film

In 2018,

ABC iView ABC iview is a video on demand and catch-up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Currently iview video content can only be viewed by users in Australia. As of 2016, ABC iview attracts around 50 million plays monthly and a ...

released the

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

Wrong Kind of Black ''Wrong Kind of Black'', originally titled ''Maybe Today'', is an Australian four-part comedy drama series originally released as a telemovie and web series in 2018, and on streaming services in 2020. It was created, written and narrated by the ...

'', narrated by and based on Pryor’s life. In September 2019, the web series was nominated for an

International Emmy The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sc ...

Awards and honours

In 1990, Pryor received the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Award as a result of his "outstanding contribution to the promotion of Indigenous culture". In 2011, ''Shake a Leg'' won the

Prime Minister's Literary Award The Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards (PMLA) were announced at the end of 2007 by the incoming First Rudd ministry following the 2007 Australian federal election, 2007 election. They are administered by the Minister for the Arts (Aust ...

for Children’s Fiction. In 2012, Pryor and

Alison Lester Alison Jean Lester (born 17 November 1952) is an Australian author and illustrator who has published over 25 children's picture books and two young adult novels — ''The Quickstand Pony'' and ''The Snow Pony''. In 2005 Lester won the Child ...

were named the first inaugural

s. Pryor's works, including those in collaboration with Meme McDonald, have also won the

Victorian Premier's Literary Award The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary ...

and the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Award The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

. ''Maybe Tomorrow'' (1998) won a Special Commendation from the

Human Rights Awards Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are great apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligenc ...

and ''My Girragundji'' (1998), won a

Children's Book Council of Australia A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

Award, while ''The Binna Binna Man'' (1999), won several awards.

Selected works

Picture Books * ''Shake a Leg'', illustrated by

Jan Ormerod Jan Ormerod (23 September 1946 – 23 January 2013), born Janet Louise Hendry, was an Australian illustrator of children's books. She first came to prominence from her wordless picture book ''Sunshine'' which won the 1982 Mother Goose Award. H ...

(2010), winner of the

for Children's Fiction in 2011 *''Story Doctors'', illustrated by Rita Sinclair (2021) Young adult novels * ''My Girragundji'', co-authored with Meme McDonald (1998), winner of a Children's Book Council of Australia Award *''The Binna Binna Man'', co-authored with Meme McDonald (1999), won an Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in 2000 * ''Njunjul the Sun'', co-authored with Meme McDonald (2002) * ''Flytrap'', co-authored with Meme McDonald (2002) Non-fiction * ''Maybe Tomorrow'', co-authored with Meme McDonald (1998)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pryor, Boori Monty 1950 births Indigenous Australian writers Australian children's writers Living people Writers from Queensland 20th-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian novelists