Dr Amy McQuire

Biography

Dr Amy McQuire is a Journalist-Academic, and Senior Lecturer at the Carumba Institute. She is a proud Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton in Central Queensland and a researcher looking at Indigenous media and issues of Indigenous justice, particularly in the cases of  disappeared Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.

Dr McQuire is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research (DECRA) Fellow (2026-2028) researching Black Justice Journalism.

Dr McQuire's professional background is independent Indigenous journalism. She has spent nearly two decades working in the field, and still practices journalism independently. Her first non-fiction book Black Witness: The Power of Indigenous Media, published by University of Queensland Press, was highly awarded, winning the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for a Work of State Significance , the Victoria Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2025, and the 2025 Danger Award for Best Crime Non-Fiction 2025. Black Witness was also shortlisted for the prestigious Stella Prize, as well as many other awards.  Her first children's book Day Break was published by Hardie Grant Children's Publishing in 2021.

Amy's work interrogates the role of media in reproducing violence against Aboriginal women, specifically looking at the cases of disappeared and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. She completed  her PhD into media representations of violence against Aboriginal women at the University of Queensland. It won a Dean's Commendation for Outstanding Thesis and the Lowitja Institute's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year 2023.