Jared Thomas

Jared Thomas (born 1976) is an Australian author of children's fiction, playwright and museum curator. Several of his books have been shortlisted for awards, and he has been awarded three writing fellowships.

In May 2018 he began a 12-month secondment as William and Margaret Geary Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture at the South Australian Museum, and in 2019 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to "investigate colonised people's interpretative strategies in permanent gallery displays" in museums abroad.

Thomas was born in Port Augusta, of Aboriginal, Scottish and Irish heritage. He identifies as a Nukunu man as he was born on Nukunu land in the Southern Flinders Ranges and raised within the Nukunu culture.

He was inspired by seeing the play Funerals and Circuses by Arrernte playwright Roger Bennett when on a school excursion to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1992 and decided to study the humanities and writing. After excelling in his undergraduate BA degree at the University of Adelaide, he worked for the Fringe for a while before gaining a traineeship to work as an editor of a publication at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, where he developed a love of visual arts.

Working at Adelaide University as an academic advisor, he enrolled for a Masters degree in Creative Writing and wrote plays. His work Love, Land and Money was later produced for the 2002 Adelaide Fringe Festival. After having poems and short stories published in several anthologies, he started focusing on novels, and his first novel, Sweet Guy (2005) was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006 and the Festival Awards for Literature.

As lecturer of Communication and Literature at the University of South Australia's David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research, Thomas enrolled for his PhD in Creative Writing, which he completed in 2011.

He has coordinatedNukunu People's Council cultural heritage, language, and arts projects. He was Arts Development Officer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts at Arts SA in 2018, and is an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

In May 2018 Thomas began a 12-month secondment as William and Margaret Geary Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture at the South Australian Museum. In this role he curated the Yurtu Ardla exhibition from March to June 2019.

In September 2019 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, in order to travel to New Zealand, the US, Canada and Norway, "to investigate colonised people's interpretative strategies in permanent gallery displays".

Novels

• Sweet Guy. IAD Press. 2005. ISBN 9781864650501.
• Dallas Davis: The Scientist and the City Kids. Oxford University Press. 2011. ISBN 9780195572582.
• Calypso Summer. Magabala Books. 2013. ISBN 9781922142122.
• Songs that Sound like Blood. Magabala Books. 2016. ISBN 9780195572582.
• Game Day! Championship Collection. co-written by basketballer Patty Mills. Allen & Unwin. 2018. ISBN 9781760523800.CS1 maint: others (link) (Contents: 1. Game Day – Patty Hits the Court; 2. Game Day – Patty and the Shadows; 3. Game Day – Patty Takes Charge)

Plays

• Love, Land and Money (2002)
• Flash Red Ford (1999) - toured Uganda and Kenya, performed by a Ugandan company.

• Sweet Guy — 2002shortlisted, Festival Awards for Literature (SA): Award for an Unpublished Manuscript; 2006 shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: Prize for Indigenous Writing

• Calypso Summer — 2013 winner, black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowships; 2014 — shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards: Prize for Indigenous Writing

• Patty Hits the Court: Game Day! —2018shortlisted, Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards: Best Book for Language Development, Indigenous Children