Refugia is an unparalleled work of vision and political fury inspired by the beeliar (Swan River) and the NASA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of science; this collection draws on colonial archives to contest the occupation of Noongar Country. As the bicentennial year of the colony of Western Australia approaches, Shiosaki looks to the stars and back to the earth to make sense of memory and the afterlife of imperial violence. 

The winner will be announced at the start of the Sydney Writers’ Festival on Monday 19 May 2025.

Judges comments 

“Mixing archival work with psychogeography, this collection of poems speaks to the way First Nations communities hold memory — not in the confines of colonial archives but in open air, song, ceremony and poetry.” 

Elfie Shiosaki is a Noongar and Yawuru writer. She is an Associate Professor at the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Her research and teaching explores Indigenous desires for human rights and self-determination. She was the Editor of Indigenous Writing at Westerly from 2017 to 2021. She is the author of two books.