Does representation still matter? This is the question Winnie Dunn, author of the multi-award winning novel, Dirt Poor Islanders, will be contending with at the 2026 Ray Matthew Lecture at the National Library of Australia.

Beginning with Western Sydney as both her home and a microcosm of multicultural Australia, Winnie aims to examine the original promise of representation in literature, who made it and why, and whether it has delivered on its offers of recognition, reflection and social rapport. Through her work at Sweatshop Literacy Movement, recent literary case studies and reflections on the publishing industry, Winnie attempts to extend the nation's definition of representation as one of cultural authority, accreditation and sustained opportunity. Overall, Winnie will argue that representation in literature must move past visibility and adopt a critical lens on who is published, why they are selected and how their stories are utilised. At the heart of her keynote is a larger question: What is Australian literature now and what will make it matter?

Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several acclaimed anthologies, including Brownface (Cordite, 2018), Sweatshop Women (Sweatshop, 2019), Straight-Up Islander (SBS, 2020) and Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). Winnie’s debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette, 2024) won the 2025 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists Award and the 2025 Creative Australia Kathleen Mitchell Award. Dirt Poor Islanders was also shortlisted for two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and shortlisted for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award.