Video courtesy of: Eden Media

The 2009 Indigenous Literacy Day was a great success across Australia.

Read about a very busy and exciting ILD in Sydney.

Images courtesy of Prudence Upton.

Over 800 people braved gale force winds at Melbourne Town Hall to hear some of Australia's most celebrated musicians sing and authors talk. The aim of the benefit concert, Songs for Stories, was to help raise funds and awareness of the crisis in literacy in remote Indigenous communities. Kristin Gill, key organiser of the event which was held in conjunction with the Melbourne Writers Festival, said that it was a knockout concert with just over $30,000 raised.

"All performers generously donated their time and talent", she said, "and it was wonderful to have CatEmpire newly back from a sellout European and UK tour, and to have such a diverse and supportive crowd".

The Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP) is a partnership between the Australian Book Industry and The Fred Hollows Foundation that raises funds to purchase and supply books and other culturally appropriate material to remote communities where The Foundation works.

We started in 2004 with a simple question:  What could we do to help address the current literacy crisis in remote Indigenous communities.  We were deeply concerned that illiteracy in many of these communities was a common and critical barrier to the kind of full, healthy and happy life many of us take for granted. 

More simply we couldn’t imagine a world without books and reading.  More