Industry gears up for eighth annual Indigenous Literacy Day
The eighth Indigenous Literacy Day will take place around Australia next Wednesday 3 September.
Among the events scheduled is a special celebratory event at the Sydney Opera House that will feature Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) ambassadors Andy Griffiths, Samuel Wagan Watson and Alison Lester, as well as performances from children from Gondwana Choirs, singers from the Campbelltown Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir and Sydney Children’s Choir.
Nine senior girls from the Tiwi Islands will also join the event, to be hosted by NITV journalist Natalie Ahmat and attended by students from over 30 schools.
The event will also feature a Great Book Swap, in which students bring a favourite book to swap and make a gold coin donation to raise funds for the foundation. Over 700 schools, libraries, bookshops, businesses and individuals have also registered to hold a Great Book Swap or other fundraising initiative on the day.
Indigenous Literacy Day is the main fundraising day for the ILF, which provides books to remote Indigenous communities, supports community publishing projects in Indigenous languages, runs the early literacy project Book Buzz and runs visits by authors, musicians and illustrators to schools in remote Indigenous communities.
‘In the past five months the Foundation has delivered over 20,000 free books to remote Indigenous communities and organisations across Australia,’ said the ILF. ‘In addition, the Foundation funds and publishes a range of community projects including board books for babies and toddlers in Central Australia in six languages and a parent resource for Wilcannia [in NSW].’
In October the foundation plans to reprint the first Aboriginal children’s book, The Legends of Moonie Jarl, first published in the 1964.
See www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au to donate or register an event for this year’s Indigenous Literacy Day.
Category: Local news
