Hello, Hello was created at the third Spinifex Writing Camp by children from Laverton, Menzies and Tjuntjuntjara remote communities.
Under stellar supervision from ambassador Ann James, and ‘music man’ Chris Aitken, kids from the three communities came together, and a great deal of work, effort, and of course, fun went into creating our spookiest book yet!
The writing camp is always full of laughs, as the kids play and work, cooking up stories, songs and drawings.
For the third Spinifex Writing Camp, the goal was to create a songbook. The kids sat down to write these together, and with Chris’ guidance, wrote three entire songs over four days!
"Hello, Hello, off we go…" was a crowd favourite, and the kids sang it as the group bumped their way out bush in the troopie.
With a song in mind, the kids spent a couple of hours sketching the Tjuntjuntjara landscape in charcoal – and many spooky scenes were illustrated in no time!
Over the four days of the camp, more illustrations were created using different materials – from pastel illustrations to paper-clay models, and even some acrylic painting!
On the last evening of the camp an exhibition of all the kids’ art was presented to the community. Everyone was proud and amazed at the creative work the kids had produced, and listened attentively as the kids sang the songs to their families.
Soon after, our team got together to put together the drawings and song to create the beautiful book. Star designer Lee Burgemeestre worked hard to make sure every child’s drawing was included, and even created the text herself, writing with a stick dipped in ink!
Once we had all the drawings put together, and the final book printed, the whole team headed to Kalgoorlie to launch the book. Safe from the hot sun under the cola at East Kalgoorlie Public School, the authors, along with lots of students from local schools came together to share the story and sing the song.
At the end of the launch, the authors sat down to sign their book for a long queue of happy readers – a huge line of people eager to get a signature – signing over 50 copies!
Hello, Hello was published in March 2020, and can be purchased here.