Acclaimed Indigenous author Anita Heiss knows reading opens doors. Her own books and her work with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation are helping to break down barriers and getting good books into the Australian communities that need them most. Harry’s Secret is her latest creative contribution to this important cause.
In 2015 you released Harry’s Secret, which was published by Scholastic Australia. It’s set in Cowra—which is Wiradjuri country in Central New South Wales—and where your mother was born. Who or what inspired this story?
I realised a couple of years ago I’d not written any books with key male characters and that, although I’d written about various parts of Wiradjuri country (Goulburn in Manhattan Dreaming and Mudgee in Tiddas), I had not written anything about the place where my mother grew up as a young girl. I’d been to Cowra and loved the town and the people so it was easy for me to go back to research. I also had a deadly group of kids to be my ‘research assistants’ so I also had a lot of fun learning through their eyes as well.
Harry is one of a group of Indigenous kids who like to skate, watch league, camp and swim at the local pool. Harry’s Secret is his ability to draw but his mate Gav doesn’t think art is cool. What do you hope children will discover about creativity, conformity and friendship through reading Harry’s tale?
I really hope children, especially young boys, come to understand that there are no boundaries in terms of what they can do and be in their lives. That they can draw or fish or skateboard or do all of those activities if they like and, for the most part, their gender should not be a barrier. I also hope they find a new love of reading.
You are a life ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF). Donating $140 to ILF delivers a Book Buzz early literacy pack for one child in a remote Indigenous community. What difference will the pack make to that child, their family and their community?
Book Buzz provides families, babies, toddlers and preschool children with sets of developmentally appropriate books (board and cloth books) that introduce children to the joys of reading. They cover a range of topics: people, places, animals, objects, narrative stories, early concepts of letters and numbers, sensory elements, and facts about the world. These books are selected by an Indigenous literacy specialist, in consultation with children’s book professionals and key contacts and elders within remote communities. There’s a list of 30 selected books, many with supporting literacy resources. Organisations select 10 books off the list that are appropriate for their Book Buzz packs. The literacy resources are designed to support the implementation of the books and encourage further interest and engagement in stories.
Organisations integrate the books into their programs, using them on a daily basis. They are used as part of daily story time and story sharing sessions in playgroups, literacy experiences in preschool environments, and even aligned with child development health checks in community health clinics.
Most recently, I was really pleased to see the Hawthorn Football Club (via the support of the Epic Good Foundation) donate Book Buzz packs to Milikapti School on Melville Island.
How else is the Indigenous Literacy Foundation ‘levelling the playing field so that all Australian children have the same opportunities to develop a lifelong love of reading’?
The ILF has a fantastic Book Supply Program, which delivers much-needed books and literacy resources into remote and isolated communities across Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. These new and culturally relevant books are gifted FREE!
The ILF also runs Community Literacy Projects, publishing books that are written or developed by community members. These books, many of which have been written by children, recognise the importance of community stories, respond to the requests from community, and have positive literacy outcomes. There are two distinct categories of books that our Foundation has been involved in publishing. These include stories written by children, and parenting or educational books written in consultation with community members. To date we have published, in many partnerships, 41 books.
What is the main thing you would like non-Indigenous Australians to understand about literacy issues in Indigenous communities?
I want all Australians to understand that literacy issues are part of much bigger life experiences in remote communities. The capacity for people to read is impacted on by health, by living conditions, by language differences and, most importantly, by access to resources. The ILF is working hard to get as many appropriate books into as many hands as possible in remote communities.
I also think its important for those of us living in cities/urban centres to be aware that many Australians, particularly in remote communities, don’t have the privilege of local/public libraries, well-stocked school libraries and/or book shops. When we consider our won privilege in this sense, then it is easy to see how important the work of the ILF is. Anyone reading this blog will understand that reading opens doors and, for most of us, we can’t imagine our own worlds without books.
You co-edited the Macquarie PEN Anthology Of Aboriginal Literature with Peter Minter and travel internationally lecturing about Aboriginal literature. What three children’s or YA books of fiction or poetry by Australian Indigenous writers top your recommended reading list for younger readers?
- Shake-A-Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and illustrated by Jan Omerod.
- Fog a Dog by Bruce Pascoe
- All of the Yarning Strong series of books
Your ‘Koori Chick Lit’ novels include ‘Avoiding Mr. Right’, ‘Paris Dreaming’, ‘Manhattan Dreaming’ and ‘Not Meeting Mr. Right’. What’s good and/or fun about writing commercial women’s fiction and who are a few other Koori Chick Lit authors to explore?
The best thing about writing popular women’s fiction/Koori chick lit is the research. I had to travel to Melbourne for Avoiding Mr. Right and eat in the fabulous restaurants around the city and enjoy cakes in Ackland Street St Kilda.
I went to NYC to research Manhattan Dreaming and strolled along 5th Avenue and through Central Park. I also saw the Knicks play in Madison Square Garden and attended a major event in Harlem the day President Obama was inaugurated. I did all of that in the name of research.
For Paris Dreaming I had to visit the Musée du quai Branly to be able to write authentically about my character working there. Of course I also had to eat a lot of croissants and sashay along the Champs-Élysées. I do suffer for my craft!
And, then, I get to relive all the research when I get home and start putting it all on the page.
In Who am I? The diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 (Scholastic, Australia) you tell a story that’s not too dissimilar to what your grandmother went through when she was taken to Cootamundra Girls’ Home at the age of 6 and put into service at the age of 14. Why is it important for children’s and YA authors to write about the more difficult aspects of Australia’s national history—including the stolen generation—and the impact these policies, practices and attitudes have on individuals and families?
I have always believed that writers have a responsibility to hold a mirror up to society–regardless of genre. It saddens me to meet so many Australians who say they didn’t know about the Stolen Generations. Many didn’t know because the history of this country was largely written with a colonising mindset and pen that chose to ignore the reality of the dark side of our shared history.
I think young Australians need to know everything about what created the society in which we live today. We need, as writers, as Australian writers, to embrace all that makes up our history and document truth in our stories–whether they are picture books or YA novels.
By writing about the policies of removal, of the disconnection of Aboriginal people from their families, communities, country and culture, writers help others to understand the realities of Aboriginal people today. The people we are today are in direct relation to who we were in the past, and how we were treated under government policy.
Who Am I? The diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 was about transporting young people back in time, but it continues to be read by adults who want to learn about the Stolen Generations as well.
What three things do you most hope children will encounter and/or learn as they read or are read to?
I hope most children will:
- Learn to love reading to themselves and each other
- Be transported to different times and places that inspire and entertain them in equal measure
- Find joy in language and storytelling.
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