Tasma Walton’s Albany-based novel, I am Nannertgarrook, shortlisted for prestigious WA Premier’s Book Awards

A novel telling the story of Aboriginal women imprisoned on islands off Albany’s coast has earned author Tasma Walton a place on the shortlist for WA’s highest literary honours.

I am Nannertgarrook has been shortlisted in the 2026 WA Premier’s Book Awards, which celebrate excellence in writing across six categories and two special prizes.

Walton grew up in Geraldton, but has ancestral ties to Albany, said the novel partly set on Bald Island is a story of one of her ancestors.

A Bunurong woman from Melbourne, the book’s protagonist — and Walton’s ancestor — was abducted by sealers in the 1830s and forcibly taken across southern Australia before being imprisoned off the Albany coast.

“(Her and her family) were abducted by sealers in the 1830s and they were transported across to the islands off the coast of Tasmania,” she said.

“They were sold in the slave market, and then my ancestor was taken all the way across to the islands off the coast of Albany, particularly Bald Island where she was essentially imprisoned for many decades.

“It was a common tactic that the sealers would use — they would abduct Aboriginal women and children and then to prevent them from leaving they would strand them on different islands.

“It made it impossible for the women and kids to swim to the mainland from those islands, being such dangerous water and they had young children and sharks around, so it was a very deliberate tactic that the sealers would use to make sure that the women couldn’t escape.”

Walton said many Aboriginal women from coastal communities across Australia suffered similar experiences.

“It’s really just the fact that Aboriginal women were taken from so many different places along the coastline, so many saltwater mobs and many of them ended up just off the coast of Albany,” she said.

Walton said she hoped the novel would contribute to a greater understanding of Australia’s history.

“I believe it’s a very important part of our understanding of who we are and how we came to be on this continent,” she said.

“It’s important to acknowledge the terrible trauma and suffering that was inflicted on Aboriginal people in the name of settling this continent.”

The WA Premier’s Book Awards, presented annually by the State Library of WA, celebrate the State’s best contemporary writing, with this year’s shortlist featuring more than 30 authors.

Walton said being shortlisted for the award was a big honour.

“It’s always a wonderful honour,” she said.

“It’s a lovely validation of that work that is put into writing a novel like this, and the fact that there’s recognition for that story and the truth-telling aspect of it, it’s a great honour.”