For the past three years, Robyn Kenny, Principal Consultant with the Port Lincoln Partnership in Port Lincoln, SA, has been ordering books from ILF’s Book Supply program.
“The quality of the books is outstanding,” says Robyn, who each year makes a selection of appropriate titles from the Books 4 Toddlers, Books 4 Kids, Books 4 Big Kids and Books 4 Community lists.
Port Lincoln Partnership works with several local government schools in the Eyre Peninsula region, including Lincoln Gardens Primary School, Kirton Point Child Care and some playgroups.
The partnership has a “Paint Port Lincoln Read” project, initiated in 2018 by a group of educators and speech pathologists who wanted to encourage the importance of reading among young families in the town.
Through this, they have been able to distribute books from ILF to almost 30 young Indigenous mums and their babies who attend a Nunga playgroup. Books also went to the local “Play to Learn” playgroup.
“The books have been a welcome gift to any child who gets their hands on one. This excitement … hopefully translates into developing a love of books initially and leads to a lifelong love for reading.”
Some of the books have been sent to students at a remote Aboriginal school near Ceduna, on the coast 400 kilometres north-west of Port Lincoln. Others have been enjoyed by the teenage Aboriginal boys enrolled in the “Clontarf” education program at Port Lincoln High School. And some have been presented to local kids at events during Children’s Book Week and NAIDOC Week, which invariably have featured the Port Linclon-created “Shakirra the Shark” reading mascot.
“Being able to hand out beautiful books … at special events in all of our schools, pre-schools and other Community organisations has assisted us with our promotional message of the importance of reading to our children and their parents.”
As part of its extensive work in the Community, the Partnership is now looking to distribute some of the books it receives from our Foundation to the local footy club where they hope to set up a box of books for the kids to read between games.
“We’re truly grateful,” Robyn says. “[ILF does] an amazing job by sourcing such excellent literature to share with Communities. Thank you so much — and thank you to those who support this initiative financially.”
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation works as an initiative of the Australian Book Industry with the support of:
The
Indigenous Literacy Foundation is registered with the ACNC and is a Public Benevolent Institution with DGR1 and TCC status.
ABN 45146631843.
Copyright © 2025 Indigenous Literacy Foundation · Privacy & Security Statement
