CANBERRA—It's not every day you have the opportunity to launch your first book at The Lodge and in front of a group that included acclaimed Australian authors and the prime minister's wife.
Six indigenous kids from the Northern Territory communities of Wugularr, Barunga and Manyallaluk did just that today.
The children, aged 10 to 16, travelled thousands of kilometres to Canberra to take part in a writing workshop with children's author Andy Griffiths.
They presented their stories in the form of little self-illustrated books to Therese Rein, patron of Indigenous Literacy Day.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and authors including David Malouf and Kate Grenville also looked on.
The stories included tales of shopping in Darwin, fishing with family, the Barunga Community festival and the floods at Wugularr.
Students from schools in the ACT and Queanbeyan also had the opportunity read out some of their work.
One poem which Sianna Eland, 14, wrote about her deceased mother, brought Ms Rein to tears.
She thanked the children and the Indigenous Literary Project (ILP), which is run by the Fred Hollows Foundation and Australian Book Industry, to get books into remote communities.
"Having such distinguished writers involved with this project both sets a wonderful inspiration for indigenous children and also sends a really strong message about how important our efforts are," Ms Rein said.
"And it is wonderful to see an industry that is all about reading and is all about books reach out to indigenous communities and say `we think it is just as important that you have access to appropriate and interesting well written reading material as everybody else."
Ms Macklin also congratulated the children.
"I love to read, it gives me enormous joy to hear (of) these youngsters learning to write and, of course, being able to read themselves," she said.
Mr Griffiths, who recently travelled to communities in the Northern Territory, said the IPL program was having a dramatic impact.
"I'm often reading the paper and throwing my arms up in horror thinking what can you do?" Mr Griffiths said.
"And empowering them with literacy is one of the most powerful things, because large parts of the communities can't read or write and therefore they can't self govern or organise themselves in a powerful way.
"So this is the beginning of, hopefully, a whole new generation."
Next week's Indigenous Literacy Day is a national event aiming to raise $250,000 for the ILP project.
