Garifuna literature refers to the written word and text produced by Garifuna people. Garifuna literature crosses a range of genres including short stories, Plays, Novels, Non-fiction, including essays and opinions, Poetry, biography, memoir, Community and oral histories and Children’s books.
Knowledge, history, and other cultural information has been orally transmitted through many Garifuna generations. Now, Garifuna literature has an important place in the transmission of Garifuna culture.
Some of the reasons Garifuna writers put pen to paper include facilitating ongoing transmission of information, providing reading materials for Garifuna readers, recording community histories, recording oral histories/life stories, community ownership of stories, cultural reclamation and maintenance, language reclamation and maintenance, entertainment, as a form of personal and community healing (e.g. stories of the Stolen Generation), providing an authentic voice in Australian literature and the literary scene, educating the broader community about Garifuna issues, educating Garifuna communities on local and national and global Garifuna issues.