Magabala Books

Mag­a­bala Books is Australia’s only inde­pen­dent Indige­nous pub­lish­ing house and pub­lish­es works by many of Australia’s fore­most Indige­nous writ­ers, sto­ry­tellers and artists. 

Although Mag­a­bala Books is a ful­ly func­tion­al nation­al pub­lish­ing house we have a beau­ti­ful book­shop based in Broome dis­play­ing our books.

Mag­a­bala Books Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion is a small, inde­pen­dent, not-for-prof­it pub­lish­ing house and it is unique because Mag­a­bala is a nation­al pub­lish­ing house based in a very remote area. 

Mag­a­bala is the Yawu­ru word for the bush banana. Yawu­ru is one of the major lan­guage groups of Broome. The bush banana is an edi­ble fruit and is com­mon through­out the coastal regions of North­ern Aus­tralia. If left to dry, the mag­a­bala opens up and the seeds are dis­persed by the wind, aid­ed by their silken parasols. 

Just as the Mag­a­bala spreads its seeds, thus Mag­a­bala Books, through its qual­i­ty pub­li­ca­tions, spreads the seeds of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander cultures. 

Mag­a­bala Books was born out of a tra­di­tion­al song and dance fes­ti­val held in 1984 that was attend­ed by Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple from across the Kim­ber­ley. Here it was decid­ed that an organ­i­sa­tion, firm­ly root­ed in Abo­rig­i­nal law and cul­ture, be estab­lished. The Kim­ber­ley Abo­rig­i­nal Law and Cul­ture Cen­tre (KALACC). KALACC was to be run by Abo­rig­i­nal lead­ers and one of its aims was to pro­tect the rights of tra­di­tion­al sto­ry­tellers and artists. To this end, Mag­a­bala Books was created. 

In 1987, from the pearling town of Broome in the remote north-west of West­ern Aus­tralia, Mag­a­bala Books pub­lished its first book. Today we have more than twen­ty five years of expe­ri­ence in pub­lish­ing Abo­rig­i­nal social his­to­ry, mem­oirs, auto­bi­og­ra­phy, fic­tion, young adult, chil­dren’s tra­di­tion­al sto­ries and chil­dren’s pic­ture books. We are proud to be Aus­trali­a’s old­est inde­pen­dent Indige­nous pub­lish­ing house. 

Mag­a­bala Books works in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, edu­ca­tion spe­cial­ists, teach­ers and librar­i­ans to devel­op rel­e­vant and engag­ing lit­er­a­cy mate­ri­als for all cul­tures. Mag­a­bala only pro­duces books by Abo­rig­i­nal or Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple. We aim to intro­duce all chil­dren to Indige­nous tra­di­tion and culture. 

If you don’t make it all the way to Broome or want to check out our fab­u­lous col­lec­tion of books before you get here you can look online at www​.mag​a​bala​.com