Ruby Langford Ginibi (26 January 1934 – 1 October 2011) was an acclaimed Bundjalung author, historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics.

Names

According to Langford's memoir, ''Don't Take Your Love to Town'', her parents married in September 1934, eight months after her birth, and she was originally named Ruby Maude Anderson. Langford was her husband's surname, and Ginibi is a Bundjalung honorific.

Life and career

Born at the Box Ridge Mission, Coraki on New South Wales's northern coast, Langford was raised at Bonalbo and attended high school in Casino. At 15, she moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

where she qualified as a clothing machinist. She had nine children by various relationships, but only legally married once, to Peter Langford, whose surname she took as her own. Three of Langford's children predeceased her. Graphic designer Nikita Ridgeway is one of her grandchildren. Her best-known book was the autobiographical ''Don't Take Your Love to Town'', published in 1988, which won the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Award for Literature. She wrote non-fiction books, essays, poems and short stories.

Death

Langford had been suffering kidney problems and high blood pressure before her death at Fairfield Hospital, Sydney, aged 77, on 1 October 2011.

Recognition

She received an inaugural History Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts in 1994, an inaugural honorary fellowship from the National Museum of Australia,

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, in 1995, and an inaugural doctorate of letters (Honors Causia) from La Trobe University, Victoria in 1998. In 2005 she was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Special Award. Her works are studied in Australian high schools and universities. In 2006, she won the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

Writers' Emeritus Award. She received the award with its prize of $50,000 at a ceremony during the Sydney Writers' Festival. The award recognises the achievements of writers over the age of 65. In 2008, Ginibi was a Don't DIS my ABILITY ambassador. In 2020, a river-class ferry on the

Sydney Ferries Sydney Ferries is the public transport ferry network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales. Services operate on Sydney Harbour and the connecting Parramatta River. The network is controlled by the New South Wales Government's transport a ...

network was named in her honour.

Bibliography

* ''Don't Take Your Love to Town'' (Penguin, 1988); * ''Real Deadly'' (Angus & Robertson, 1992); * ''My Bundjalung People'' (UQP, 1994); * ''Haunted by the Past'' (Allen & Unwin, 1999); * ''All My Mob'' (UQP, 2007); * ''A Journey into Bundjalung Country'', with Pam Johnston * ''Ruby Langford Ginibi'', co-authored with John Barnes and Blanca Fullana

References

External links

*
Approaches to ''Don't Take Your Love to Town''
Australian Women's Studies Resources
"Remembering Ruby: ''Don't Take Your Love to Town'' again"
''MC Review'', accessed 15 July 2007.
Sydney Writer's Festival News Issue #1 (2005)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Langford Ginibi, Ruby 1934 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Australian novelists Australian historians Australian women historians Australian memoirists Australian women novelists Historians of Australia Indigenous Australian writers Writers from New South Wales Bundjalung people Australian women memoirists 20th-century Australian women writers