Save the Date for Indigenous Literacy Week, starts 1 September

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are being asked to join with others around Australia to celebrate a full week of events and activities built around Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD) on Wednesday 1 September.

A gala event will be held on Saturday 4 September 2021, with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) encouraging Australia to mark this week in your calendar and with an event program to be released shortly.

In 2020 over 500,000 people tuned in for Indigenous Literacy Day - a record-breaking event for a charity who pre-COVID-19, had hosted the annual celebration at the Sydney Opera House with a few hundred participants including students from remote communities.

The ILD Main Event is a 40-minute visual story, sharing insights from ILF ambassadors and supporters such as Anita Heiss, Andy Griffiths and Archie Roach and a stunning performance of My Island Home by Jessica Mauboy. Viewers can access the full video or short segments of the video on our YouTube Channel.

The Education Event for primary and early learners (aged between three and 11 years of age) is a 25-minute event, featuring Jessica Mauboy, Justine Clarke, Cheryl Lardy and Andy Griffiths, with a book reading in Kriol and English, a melody in Tiwi, Mangarrayi and English and songs and activities with author, performer and musician Gregg Dreise.

If you are an early childhood service, school, bookseller, publisher, library, business, organisation or individual, the Foundation said, you can also contribute and celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day every year by:

Making a donation through the ILF website
Holding a Great Book Swap or your own fundraising event
Donating a percentage of your product sales on this day – popular for bookshops!
Taking an ILF donation box to work or school
Buying an ILF t-shirt for your staff or students to wear to work or school
Becoming a regular giver or set up workplace giving
Making your organisation a partner
Advocating on social media and tag @IndigenousLiteracyFoundation on Facebook and Instagram, and @IndigenousLF on Twitter.