Karin Calley’’s first book, Caden Walaa! – Caden Watch Out! a collaboration with Australian First Nations rights activist Noel Pearson, was the first picture book for children to be published in the threatened Guugu Yimithirr language of Cape York Peninsula (University of Queensland Press 1994).

Following Caden Walaa!, Karin had two children, earning  a living writing speeches,  treatments and  scripts for information videos and documentaries.

In 2015 Karin and her linguist husband Jan Goetesson, together with Cape York Institute and Guugu Yimithirr language expert Lillian Bowen, established Pama Language Centre. Karin has since illustrated and edited many books in Cape York Languages with First Nations authors, directed short films and regularly leads author/ illustrator workshops to support literacy in First Nations languages.

Karin’s Swedish and Swedish-Finnish heritage is important to her. Swedish is spoken in her home. Early experiences of life and travels with her archaeologist mother and anthropologist father are also an important part of her personal story.

Karin was born in Brisbane in 1965. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, History and Prehistory from Sydney University and a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts.

Karin Calley is a co-founder and Manager of Pama Language Centre, a small but active and nationally recognised organisation working with First Nations language communities to record, revive and maintain the threatened ancestral languages of Cape York Peninsula, in northern Australia. Karin is also a practicing artist and printmaker.

Awards:

Researcher/ Script writer: The documentary film Dhuway, for which Karin was chief researcher and scriptwriter, told the story of the forced removal of the peoples of Cape Melville and Flinders Island from their homelands and their struggle to reclaim their traditional lands. Dhuway was awarded the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Television Documentary in 1997.

 In 2024 Pama Language Centre , of which Karin Calley is the Co-Founder and Manager, received the John Oxley Library Community History Award

Director: Yadhaykenu animation  Apudthinggal Wuchuma – Shorty and the Three Snakes Understory Film Festival Award for Best Animation 2024

Director: Yadhaykenu animation  Apudthinggal Wuchuma – Shorty and the Three Snakes South Pacific Film Festival Finalist 2024