Click
here to help the child in your
life fall in love
with
reading.
Yirara College's "Our Country"
Funded May
2003
Located in Alice Springs, Yirara
College is a co-educational boarding school for secondary-aged
Indigenous children. Students come from traditional communities
in rural and remote parts of Central Australia. The educational
programs available in these communities are regarded as only
marginally relevant to an Indigenous way of life. This
negatively affects attendance, learning and literacy levels.
The
project
Student development of literacy
skills is a high priority at Yirara. "Our Country"is
the result of students developing their literacy skills by
studying and innovating on text taken from literature. In this
instance students studied Dorothea Mackellar's poem "My
Country" and "The Burnt Stick"by Anthony Hill.
The
writing in "Our Country" reflects the students'
thoughts about their own country and communities and is
supported by student illustrations of these places. The authors
and illustrators are between 12 and 17 years old. You can see
the theme of country is close to their hearts.
The
results
This
grant ensures the community school libraries in the
NT receive a copy of "Our Country" so younger
Indigenous and
non-Indigenous students may be inspired to write about their
country.
