Grant helps indigenous stories reach more kids

Primary school children across Australia will have more opportunities to study indigenous stories in the classroom, thanks to a partnership between Magabala Books and two national literacy organisations.

The Broome publisher recently teamed up with the Copyright Agency and the Australian Literacy Educators Association to deliver specially created teaching resources for 15 indigenous books.

The organisation recently received a $33,500 grant from Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund to develop the resources, which will be available to teachers via the agency’s Reading Australia website.

Online materials for four titles, including Once There Was a Boy and Fog a Dox, will be available next month.

Magabala Books chairwoman Edie Wright said increasing demand for indigenous content meant it was vital for teachers to have access to stories authored by indigenous people.

“You cannot replace the power of reading a story from an indigenous person’s perspective,” she said. “We are thrilled to be working with Reading Australia and ALEA and we hope that many more teachers will use indigenous titles in their classrooms as a result.”

More resources will be rolled out in July and December.