NAIDOC Week StoryTime
We have had a busy (but fabulous) morning at Leongatha Library on Thursday 7th July with our NAIDOC Week extended Story Time and book swap event raising money for The Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
For our NAIDOC Week StoryTime, we celebrated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, illustrators, singers and songwriters. We used clapsticks, seed pod shakers and Lumut (bamboo) drums to sing, dance and play along to songs in 6 different Indigenous languages from across Australia, finding the language group on our huge AIATSIS map as we went.
On the portable tv screen, we watched young Torres Strait Islander dancers dance with their kulap shakers while the Elders played their warup and lumut drums, then we watched, played along to and signed in Auslan the ‘I am Australian’ song from ABC Kids. We read books by Indigenous authors and illustrators and the children worked out what the Indigenous words were by looking at the pictures and using the clues in the text. After we had read and danced and sang we made our own Kulap shakers and Warup drums from recycled materials and then played them together to the music on the ABC Indigenous Lullabies playlist. It was such a wonderful morning and we received some really lovely and enthusiastic feedback from participants.
The Great Book Swap
Following the StoryTime, we had our Great Book Swap where patrons bring a book, swap it for another, and make a gold coin donation to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). We have printed off little cards in which people write why they are sharing that book before placing it in the mix, which has been just lovely!
The Great Book Swap is a fantastic way to celebrate reading locally, learn more about Indigenous languages and culture, and raise funds for a great cause. This year the ILF are aiming raise $150,000 to gift 15,000 new books to remote Communities.
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation was founded in 2004 by Suzy Wilson, owner of Riverbend Books in Brisbane, with the aim of raising funds to improve literacy outcomes in remote Australia. ILF has worked with over 400 remote communities, gifted 636,000 books, supplied 83 playgroups with early literacy Book Buzz resources, and published 143 books reflecting 26 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
Through ILF’s three core programs, their dedicated ambassadors, volunteers and staff work together to gift thousands of new culturally relevant books annually, support Communities to create books, many in First Languages, and organise major advocacy and fundraising events, including Indigenous Literacy Day.
The table will remain at Leongatha Library for the next few days, so please come along to have a browse and leave with some new-to-you goodies! Visit our GBS blog page to read more about The Great Book Swap or to make an online donation – https://bit.ly/myliGBS
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
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