In 2012, a working party established to work towards the goal, comprising Thomas, Reed-Gilbert, Philip McLaren, Jackie Huggins, Sam Watson Snr, Jim Everett (aka puralia meenamatta, Tasmanian writer, playwright, and poet[1]), Alexis West (dancer, choreographer, performer, writer, filmmaker[2]), John Harding (playwright[3]), Peter Minter (poet and editor[4]), Marcus Waters (Kamilaroi screenwriter and academic,[5] and Marie Munkara (Darwin-based writer of Rembarrnga and Tiwi descent[6]).
Board members are Jeanine Leane, Samantha Faulkner, John Harding, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Rachel Bin Salleh.
[12] In May 2013, FNAWN organised its first national workshop, a three-day-event in Brisbane attended by 120 Indigenous writers, poets and storytellers, as well as non-Indigenous literary, agents, publishers and individuals.
Introduced by Craigie, the six readers were: Jeanine Leane, Dub Leffler, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe, Jared Thomas and Ellen van Neerven.
The project is overseen by FNAWN publisher, Yvette Holt, in association with Australian Poetry, and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts.