2016-09-11
Emma Davidson
Wednesday 7 September was Indigenous Literacy Day, with events held around Australia to help spread the word about improving literacy levels and opportunities for Indigenous children living in some of the most remote and isolated areas of our country.
Organised by the non-profit Indigenous Literacy Foundation, the day is an important fundraiser for resources for more than 250 remote Indigenous communities and service organisations across Australia. Resources are an essential first step in building a culture of literacy in communities where there are simply no books in homes, no bookshops and where only 36% of the population can access a library. In its five years as a Foundation, the ILF has delivered over 150,000 free and culturally appropriate books, and has published and funded over 44 community literacy projects, eleven of which have been published in first languages.
"Indigenous Literacy Day is our main fundraising event, and we want more schools and businesses to sign up each year. People love to share their favourite books and organising a book swap is a way to help us continue to increase literacy levels in remote Indigenous communities across Australia," says Executive Director Karen Williams.
The major event for Indigenous Literacy Day 2016 was held at the Sydney Opera House with around 400 guests attending, including students from more than 19 schools. The event was opened by ILF patron, Quentin Bryce. Ambassadors Justine Clarke and Josh Pyke sang a new song with support from Gawura students at St Andrew's Cathedral School, Words Make the World Go Around, available on iTunes (ILF report that the song had hit #1 on iTunes). Ambassador Deborah Cheetham led the Pecan Summer Children's Choir, who perform in Australia's first Aboriginal Opera on Monday 12 September. In addition to the music, seven students read their stories from The Goanna was Hungry. This book was written by students from Tjuntjuntjara Remote Community School, Mt Margaret and Menzies in WA at an ILF Spinifex Writing Camp with Ann James and Sally Morgan. The students travelled for two days, covering more than 3,000 kilometres, to attend the Sydney Opera House event and read their stories. Finally, lifetime ambassador Andy Griffiths led a Great Book Swap. Hundreds of school children made a gold coin donation and swapped books in the northern foyer, to help raise much needed funds for the Foundation.
Deborah Cheetham says that providing kids with stories that include people they can relate to is important in engaging them in reading.
"When I was young and part of the Stolen Generation I read books that didn't contain any Aboriginal people and I didn't think anything of it because I'd been taught not to think of myself as Aboriginal," she said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Now kids want to see themselves in books. We must harness their knowledge and enthusiasm and give them books to read in which they belong."
Young author Dean Bonney told the ABC that he enjoyed writing "his first book". Let's hope there are many more literary experiences to come for Dean and his classmates.
Images provided by Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Book available online.