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About Katrina

Writing

Katrina Kell is an award-winning Australian writer. Her recent novel Chloé (2024) was inspired by one of Australia’s most iconic paintings. Created in Paris by Jules Joseph Lefebvre in 1875, Chloé has graced the walls of Young and Jackson Hotel since 1909 and is now a much-loved cultural icon. “Having a drink with Chloé” has been a good luck ritual for Australian soldiers since WWI, a tradition that has continued throughout the decades.

Katrina’s short stories, poetry and essays have been published in anthologies and literary journals including The French Australian Review, Westerly, Text, Raudem and Index, and her journalism has appeared in various media, including The Conversation and on the SBS News site. She is the author of the young adult novels, Juice and Mama’s Trippin’, and was the winner of an Australian Society of Authors Award Mentorship for the unpublished manuscript of Chloé. She has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature (Creative Writing) and regularly speaks at writing festivals, libraries and conferences about her creative process, research, and truth telling.

Katrina lives and works on the unceded lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia.

Truth Telling

On 4 September 2024, Katrina appeared as a witness at the Descendants Day Hearing of the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Naarm (Melbourne). She was a guest speaker on the SBS program Insight ‘Recognising Our Past’ episode in October 2024, where she discussed her colonial ancestor’s role in the theft of Gunditjmara land and the illegal settlement of Portland in November 1834 in what is now known as the State of Victoria. Her first-person article, ‘My ancestor’s actions led to atrocities against Indigenous people. I want to tell the truth,’ can be read on the SBS News website.

Katrina encourages all Australians to read the Yoorrook Justice Commission final report, Yoorrook: Truth Be Told. As Professor Eleanor A Bourke AM, Chairperson of Yoorrook Justice Commission explains in her invitation to read Yoorrook: Truth Be Told, this report ‘ensures that First People’s truths about colonisation will sit in the public record alongside the colonial narrative that has, until now, been the dominant account of the past … Truth Be Told tells the history of Victoria through the voices of First Peoples who testified before the Commission.’

As a writer who lives and works on stolen land, Katrina found it humbling and a privilege to share the disturbing truth about her ancestor. We all have a role in ensuring justice and reparation for all First Peoples in this land of many nations by acknowledging Australia’s history of frontier warfare with honest, critical, and most importantly, compassionate and respectful eyes.

Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.