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Books Holocaust Island, Holocaust Revisited: Killing Time | ||
Graeme dixon blackburn warehouse 1990
Graeme Dixon is a Noongar poet. He was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1955. His mother is a Noongar from Katanning and his father an English migrant orphan who grew up at Fairbridge Farm.
He is a member of the Stolen Generation who was taken from his family at the age of three and then spent several years at Sister Kate’s. Between the ages of ten and fourteen years he lived in a Salvation Army Boy's Home. From the age of sixteen he spent nine years in Fremantle Prison. During that time he began to write poetry.
After his release from jail he decided to stay out of jail, but fell into problems with alcohol and drugs. He then met and married Sharmaine who encouraged him to publish his poetry and further his education. At the age of 27, Graeme began tertiary studies and completed a course at Curtin University in politics, communications and Aboriginal Studies.
In 1989 his first his first published book of poems Holocaust Island won the inaugural David Unaipon Award, part of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards.