Indigenous Literacy Day - Wednesday 6th September

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is a national charity working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote Communities across Australia.

They are a community-led charity, responding to requests from remote Communities for culturally relevant books, including early learning board books, resources, and programs to support Communities to create and publish their stories in languages of their choice.

The ILF was founded by Suzy Wilson, a former teacher and education consultant who owns Riverbend Books. A charity that respects the unique place of Australia's First People and draws on the expertise of the Australian book industry.

Read a letter from their Board Indigenous languages and literacy matter.

What is Indigenous Literacy Day?

Indigenous Literacy Day, which takes place annually on the first Wednesday in September, aims to raise awareness about the educational struggles faced by Australia's First Nations communities.

Literacy provides a fundamental step of building context, comprehension and understanding, whether it is written, visual or auditory. For kids who miss that foundational step in their literacy journey, it has a lifelong impact.

In remote Communities across Australia there is often no infrastructure such as libraries or bookstores. Access to reading material is extremely limited and this impacts the achievements of Indigenous children.

ILF’s three programs, Book Supply, Book Buzz and Community Publishing Projects, focus on ensuring access to quality resources, including books in First Languages, publishing Community stories and supporting Communities and families to lead the entire process to ensure leadership, ownership, and authenticity is held with Community Elders and residents.

How do we celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day?

• Sharing Stories and Language for Schools or Education
• Once educators (or parents) sign up to the event, they will automatically have access to a list of Learning Resources and ILF colouring in activity sheets to help them plan their ILD celebration and learning.

You can help our Foundation to continue its vital work in remote Indigenous Communities. Here’s how.

Find out more about the The Indigenous Literacy Foundation | ILF | reading opens doors charity non profit

Read about the PHN's Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library - Primary Health Network (thephn.com.au)

Sydney Opera House Live Stream

There are two parts to this years Indigenous Literacy Day celebration – the 15 minute FILM which will kick off the stream at 10:30am. After the FILM is a 45 minute livestream of Indigenous Literacy Day at the Sydney Opera House. Feel free to watch just the 15 minute FILM, stay for the full event or watch the whole stream in parts whenever suits your class. The link can be viewed at any time until the end of Term 4.

Don’t forget the teacher's resource which are downloadable from the Sydney Opera House website here.

Join the Indigenous Literacy Day Live Stream

If you experience any drop out or technical difficulty watching the content on YouTube here is a back up link to watch via Sydney Opera House’s streaming platform Stream: https://stream.sydneyoperahouse.com/videos/indigenous-literacy-day-2023