Yvette Henry Holt is an Australian literary executive, multi-award-winning contemporary Australian Aboriginal poet, essayist, researcher and editor. She heralds from the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman nations of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. The youngest child born to prominent Queensland Elder,

Albert Holt Albert Holt (born 1936), usually referred to as Uncle Albert Holt, is an Aboriginal elder of the Bidjara people. Early life Holt was born in 1936 on the Barambah Mission Reserve (now known as Cherbourg) after his family was forcibly removed fro ...

and Marlene (née Henry) Holt, Yvette came to poetic prominence with her first award-winning collection of poetry ''Anonymous Premonition'' in 2008. Between 2009-2021 Holt lived and worked in

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

among the Central and

Western Arrernte Arrernte or Aranda (; ), or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...

peoples of Hermansburg and

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

Early years and education

Yvette Holt was born in 1971 at the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, her family lived in Inala East since 1968 where they had contributed to Queensland education in primary, secondary and tertiary,

Queensland Police Service The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is the principal law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. In 1990, the Queensland Police Force was officially renamed the Queensland Police Service and the old motto ...

, community and social justice, Queenslan
Stolen Wages Class-ActionBrisbane Murri CourtInala Elders
and th
Southern Queensland Centre of Excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health Care
Yvette attended Serviceton Primary State School, now known as Durack State School, where she excelled at singing, softball and writing. Holt graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Adult Education and Community Management, at the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1988, though its origins as a technical institution can be traced back t ...

UTS, Faculty of Business, 2007.

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 University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1948 as a traditional university press, UQP now publishes books for general readers across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children's ...

. Her poems have since been published in multiple journals, anthologies, short-story essays online and in traditional publications, as well her poetry has been translated in multiple languages including Mandarin, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Italian and Dutch.

Other work and activities

Between 2006-2009 Holt undertook research on

Indigenous Australian literature Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. While a letter written by Bennelong to Governor Arthur Phillip in 1796 is the first ...

, for the Black Words subset of

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...

, a resource for Australian literature published by the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

. Holt has a keen interest in Indigenous

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

in particularly First Nations women and incarceration. Yvette speaks nationally and internationally on Black literature, Women of Colour in herstorical and cultural poetic spaces, publishing, and Indigenous First Nations creative writing. Holt continues to mentor youth and women’s circles on creative writing and Indigenous Australian literature. In 2009 Yvette moved to

living and working across eighteen remote Aboriginal communities from 2009-2018 in areas such as health literacy, financial literacy, Indigenous employment strategies, and lecturer and Course Coordinator of Creative Writing at the

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE, generally known as Batchelor Institute and formerly known as Batchelor College) provides training and further education, and higher education for Aboriginal Australians and Torres Str ...

, Alice Springs Campus.

Current roles

Holt is currently the Executive Chairperson for the First Nations Australia Writers Network FNAWN since 2018, she is also a Board Director and First Nations National Director for Literary Cultural Protocol & Ethics to AP

Australian Poetry Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such ...

2019 – current, the peak-industry body for Australasian poetry, located at

The Wheeler Centre The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pa ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Holt oversees publications between First Nations Australian writers, poets, and storytellers, editors and leads the Global Alliance Network* to the First Nations Australia Writers Network FNAWN. Editor, Holt co-edited th
2019 AP Anthology Volume 7.
Co-editor for th
Borderless: A transnational anthology of feminist poetry
2021, published b
Recent Work Press
In recent years Yvette Henry Holt has advocated strongly toward the push for a nationally recognised Poet Laureate to the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...

Recognition and awards

*2003: UTS Human Rights Award in the category of

Reconciliation Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Books * Reconciliation (Under the North Star), ''Reconciliation'' (''Under the North Star''), the third volume of the ''Under the ...

for "Outstanding contribution towards the elevation of social justice for

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

" *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 Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such ...

**2008:

Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing The Victorian Premier's Prize for Indigenous Writing is a prize category in the annual Victorian Premier's Literary Award. The award commenced in 2004 and in 2012 the prize was valued at A$20,000. The winner of this category prize competes with th ...

**2010:

Kate Challis RAKA Award The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually by the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Indigenous Australian creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: c ...

*2018: "
Mother(s) Native Tongue"
', Highly Commended in the 2018

Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize Queensland Poetry Festival was the flagship program of Queensland Poetry, one of Australia's premier organisations for all things poetry. It existed to support and promote a poetry culture in Queensland and Australia, embracing the wide possibilit ...

*2019: Recipient,

Varuna Varuna (; , ) is a Hindu god. He is one of the earliest deities in pantheon, whose role underwent a significant transformation from the Vedic to the Puranic periods. In the early Vedic era, Varuna is seen as the god-sovereign, ruling the sky ...

Fellowship for her poetry manuscript "''Hands of My Mother''" *2019: Recipient, Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund *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 The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pa ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Yvette 21st-century Australian poets Indigenous Australian writers Indigenous Australian academics 21st-century Australian academics 21st-century Australian women academics 1971 births Australian women poets Living people University of Technology Sydney alumni