
	Kanawinka Writers and Historians are a cooperative group of writers with strong links to South Australia's South East. Many of them write of it's history.

NATIONAL COMMUNTIY HISTORY AWARDS

In 1994 South East Book Promotions (now known as Kanawinka Writers and Historians) initiated the first National Community History Awards. Its aims were not only to recognise this growing genre but also to raise its standards and standing amongst the wider history community. As the Award was named the Christina Smith Award after the first Community Historian of the region, her descendants under the leadership of Mrs Heather Carthew and Mr Ian Smith of Rendelsham, provided 10 commemorative medals for the winners. SEBP funded the prize and absorbed the costs. These first awards in 1994 attracted considerable interest and received entries from across Australia and entries and interest grew with each biennial event.

Sponsorship

To meet the demand from writers of less ambitious works – at least in size and cost – in 1995 it was decided to sponsor a second award for a smaller book of Community History. This was named the Ebenezer Ward Award after another remarkable figure from early SA history, who had close connections to the South East. This award first presented in 1996 attracted a new type of entrant and The Australian Council of National Trusts undertook to provide $500 biennially for ten years to provide a prize for this award.

In 1996 BankSA agreed to sponsor the Christina Smith Award and donated the sum of $1500 - $1000 to go the winner and $500 for administration. BankSA continued to sponsor the Christina Smith in 1998 but, following its major financial problems, withdrew its sponsorship which left SEBP to fund the succeeding prizes from its own resources assisted by grants towards administrative costs by some South Eastern Local Government bodies. However to counterbalance this bad news in the year 2000 the SA Historical Society sponsored a prize for the Best South Australian entry from the two awards and asked SEBP to organise this.

Involvement of the History Trust and other Bodies

Although funding was a major concern for SEBP, the awards were at the turn on the century becoming well established among writers and in publishing and history circles. The History Trust of SA was most supportive of the project and presentations to winners were made each year at the State History Conference, also held biennially. The Trust provided a judge for the competition, as did the SA Writers Centre. There was also a third judge, who either came from one of the major libraries or a bookshop and a fourth person who acted as judge and co-ordinator.

Entries and Endings

In 2002 the number of entries was 78 and the highest number received so far was just under 100. Confidence was still high that these figures could be increased in the future by wider use of the internet to reach writers and interested groups as well as through more exposure on the media, particularly ABC regional radio and Drive Shows and advertising in The Weekend Australian literary section.

In what was to become the final competition, entries in 2004 were received from nearly all the major publishers and from each state of the Commonwealth and three people including the town’s mayor, travelled from far north Queensland to Adelaide to receive their award. It was sadly to be both a high and a very low point. Despite canvassing widely the group were not able to attract sponsors for the Awards and self-funding was no longer financially possible. There were also other big players entering the lists. Large prizes for Community History were offered by two States as part of their Premiers Awards . Reluctantly and with heavy hearts SEBP decided to withdraw from the field but heads still held high because they had achieved their aim of raising Community History to its rightful place in the History world.