A WORD WITH NAKKIAH LUI

She’s a trailblazing activist and writer whose witty scripts on modern Indigenous lives provide insight into the ongoing impact of colonisation on First Nations people. Here the Gamilaraay and Torres Strait Islander woman talks food, family and reclaiming a colonised table

- CHARLOTTE WISHART

I kind of got into writing as an escape from a looming career in law. I started writing short stories and even slam poetry as a way of dealing with the anxiety of becoming a lawyer. And then a play I’d written was selected for the 2009 World Interplay Festival in Cairns. I started thinking about dreamtime stories and how so much of that storytelling was about finding the hidden meanings in things. I figured that concept naturally lends itself to performance writing, so I leaned into the serendipity of the moment and decided to become a playwright.