Sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the biennial award is open to all Indigenous authors of academic research. It provides an important avenue for First Nations scholars to examine and write about their peoples and cultures through their own eyes. 

The author of the winning submission will receive $5000 in prize money, mentoring and editorial support to turn their manuscript into a publication and an inscribed glass eel trap sculpture.

Aboriginal Studies Press, the award-winning publishing arm of AIATSIS, will consider all entries for publication.

The Stanner Award was established in 1985 as part of the commitment by AIATSIS to facilitate and publish high-quality research in Australian Indigenous studies.

Named in honour of the late Emeritus Professor W.E.H. (Bill) Stanner, the award recognises the eminent anthropologist’s life and work and his significant contribution to establishing the Institute.

Entries for the 2023 Stanner Award will close at 5pm (AEDT) on 28 February 2023.

Late submissions will not be accepted. Please read the conditions of entry carefully before considering submitting.

Winners over the past decade have covered a wide range of topics:

2021 Sarah Bourke (Making Cultures Count: Transforming Indigenous Health Data in Australia)

2019 Dr Debbie Bargallie (Maintaining the racial contract: Everyday racism and the impact of racial micro-aggressions on ‘Indigenous employees’ in the Australian Public Service)

2017 Dr Josie Douglas (Kin and Knowledge: the meaning and acquisition of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in the lives of young Aboriginal people in Central Australia)

2015 Dr Virginia Marshall (Overturning aqua nullius: securing Aboriginal water rights)

2013 Dr Bronwyn Carlson (The politics of identity: who counts as Aboriginal today?)

2011 Dr Hannah McGlade (Our greatest challenge: Aboriginal children and human rights)

Read more about the: