Celebrating Stories, Cultures and Languages: Indigenous Literacy Day, Wednesday 7 September 2022

Celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day with Jessica Mauboy!

Would you like to see a video featuring Jessica Mauboy, and learn some Aboriginal languages from kids in remote Communities? We have a really exciting event for you!

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation has a celebration every year called Indigenous Literacy Day. This year, they will be hosting an online event on Wednesday, September 7 that explores Stories, Cultures and Languages with two of our Ambassadors, Jessica Mauboy and Gregg Dreise, as well as kids from remote Australia.

This 20-minute video is about two kids, Derek and Dean, and their friends. Derek is from Milikapiti and Dean is from Jilkminggan in the Northern Territory, the top part of Australia.

Jeffrey and Derek from Milikapiti, Tiwi Islands

To celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day, the boys get on a phone call and suddenly Jessica Mauboy joins, making them really excited. The boys teach Jess the words to ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ in their languages, Tiwi and Mangarrayi. Then, author and performer Gregg Dreise joins and teaches them the song in his language, Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay.

Sharinda Dingle with Dean Conway (Centre) with Dean Rory and Tishaun Conway
From Jilkminggan, Northern Territory FaceTiming the Tiwi mob

Jessica Mauboy in a Sydney studio catching up with ILF staff members Lisa and Tictac, and Derek and friends in the Tiwi Islands

Everyone is super excited as they sing together with the boys, Gregg and Jess!

Don’t miss out on joining in on this awesome event, where you will even learn some new words in new languages.

The event is hosted on the Sydney Opera House website. Once you register, you will receive a link closer to the date which will go live at 10.30am on Wednesday 7 September. The link will be available to you for the next 90 days to watch again and again.

Sign up today at ilf.org.au/ILD.