Ruby Langford Ginibi

Ruby Langford Ginibi
Born	Ruby Maude Anderson 26 January 1934 Coraki, New South Wales, Australia
Died	1 October 2011 (aged 77) Fairfield, New South Wales, Australia
Education	Casino High School, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Indigenous Australian (Bundjalung) historian, author and lecturer
Children	Nine

Ruby Langford Ginibi (26 January 1934 – 1 October 2011^[1]) was an acclaimed Bundjalung author, historian and lecturer on Aboriginal history, culture and politics.^[2]

Names

According to Langford's memoir, Don't Take Your Love to Town, her parents married in September 1934, eight months after her birth, and she was originally named Ruby Maude Anderson. Langford was her husband's surname, and Ginibi is a Bundjalung honorific.

She also claimed her full name was Ruby Wagtail Big Noise Anderson Rangi Ando Heifer Andy Langford.^[3]

Life and career

Born at the Box Ridge Mission, Coraki on New South Wales's northern coast, Langford was raised at Bonalbo and attended high school in Casino. At 15, she moved to Sydney where she qualified as a clothing machinist. She had nine children by various relationships, but only legally married once, to Peter Langford, whose surname she took as her own. Three of Langford's children predeceased her.^[4] Her best-known book was the autobiographical Don't Take Your Love to Town, published in 1988, which won the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Award for Literature.^[5]

She received an inaugural History Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts in 1994, an inaugural honorary fellowship from the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, in 1995, and an inaugural doctorate of letters (Honors Causia) from La Trobe University, Victoria in 1998.

In 2005 she was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Special Award. Her works are studied in Australian high schools and universities. In 2006, she won the Australia Council for the Arts Writers' Emeritus Award. She received the award with its prize of up to $50,000^{[clarification needed]} at a ceremony during the Sydney Writers' Festival.^[6] The award recognises the achievements of writers over the age of 65. In 2008, Ginibi was a Don't DIS my ABILITY ambassador. She wrote non-fiction books, essays, poems and short stories.

Death

Langford had been suffering kidney problems and high blood pressure before her death in a Fairfield, Sydney hospital, aged 77, on 1 October 2011.

Bibliography

• Don't Take Your Love to Town, (Penguin, 1988); ISBN 9780702235955
• Real Deadly, (Angus & Robertson, 1992); ISBN 0207174210
• My Bundjalung People, (UQP, 1994); ISBN 0702226378
• Haunted by the Past, (Allen & Unwin, 1999); ISBN 1864487585
• All My Mob, (UQP, 2007); ISBN 9780702235962
• A Journey into Bundjalung Country, with Pam Johnston
• Ruby Langford Ginibi, co-authored with John Barnes and Blanca Fullana

References

1. ^ Schliebs, Mark (3 October 2011). "Author Langford Ginibi dies at 77". theaustralian.com.au. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/author-langford-ginibi-dies-at-77/story-e6frg8n6-1226156526586. Retrieved 3 October 2011. 
2. ^ "Ginibi, Ruby Langford". AustLit. http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A(C2. Retrieved 2007-07-15. 
3. ^ Excerpt from Don't Take Your Love to Town
4. ^ Hughes, Robin (15 November 1995). "Ruby Langford Ginibi". australianbiography.gov.au. http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/langford/interview1.html. Retrieved 4 October 2011. 
5. ^ "1989 Human Rights Medal and Awards". Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. http://www.humanrights.gov.au/hr_awards/1987.html. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 
6. ^ "Ruby Langford Ginibi wins writers' award". National Nine News. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=103648. Retrieved 2007-07-15. 

External links

• "Approaches to Don't Take Your Love to Town". University of Queensland. http://www.emsah.uq.edu.au/awsr/Publ_Ruby/ruby_ferrier.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-15. 
• Approaches to Don't Take Your Love to Town, Australian Women's Studies Resources
• "Remembering Ruby: Don't Take Your Love to Town again", MC Review, accessed 15 July 2007.
• Sydney Writer's Festival News Issue #1 (2005)

Persondata
Name	Langford Ginibi, Ruby
Alternative names	Anderson, Ruby Maude
Short description	Indigenous Australian author and historian
Date of birth	1934-01-26
Place of birth	Coraki, New South Wales, Australia
Date of death	2011-10-01
Place of death	Fairfield, New South Wales, Australia