COVID-19 continues to disrupt events across Australia. With this disruption also comes opportunities. Events to mark Indigenous Literacy Day usually take place outside the Sydney Opera House. This year due to COVID-19, the event is going online and will be open, for the first time, to everyone Australia wide.
The celebrations will be held live on YouTube on the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s YouTube channel, on Wednesday September 2nd, with events beginning at 12:30pm AEST.
The Foundation’s Indigenous Literacy Day YouTube events provide an opportunity to share and enlighten others about how positive, community-led engagement makes a difference. The events will also showcase the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s first languages and why learning in language is important.
Across the day, children and community members from the Tiwi Islands, Jilkminggan in the Northern Territory, and Bidyadanga in Western Australia, will be sharing their stories and highlighting the importance of language.
There will also be insights and stories from several ILF Ambassadors, including Andy Griffiths, Shelley Ware, Alison Lester, Josh Pyke, Natalie Ahmat, Jared Thomas and Anita Heiss, co-patron June Oscar AO and long-time ILF supporter, Archie Roach. Pop star and ILF ambassador Jessica Mauboy will also be on hand to sing a stunning rendition of a surprise “80s Australian favourite”.
The ILF is a charity that operates within the book industry and assists remote children and their families through three programs: Book Buzz promotes early literacy; Book Supply provides culturally relevant books and translations in language; and Community Literacy Projects to encourage communities to write and illustrate their own books in their first language.
In collaboration with the Sydney Opera House, the ILF will further launch an Indigenous Literacy Day celebration designed especially for primary and early learners. This will be a separate event, launching on the Sydney Opera House YouTube channel from 2pm. The organisers ask that you register for the event HERE.
The ILF is encouraging donations to the Foundation. Every $10 puts a book into the hands of a child in remote Australia. Donations can be made HERE.
For more information on Indigenous Literacy Day, head to the Indigenous Literacy Day website.
Header image: Indigenous Literacy Foundation
