Children’s book rated as one of year’s best
A book written and illustrated by Aboriginal children from a tiny coastal school in WA’s North West has been recognised as one of the best books of 2011.
The One Arm Point Community School had been extremely proud to see their book Our World: Bardi Jaawi, Life at Ardiyooloon, published by Magabala – but even more so now to see it winning national awards.
Elder Violet Carter travelled with fellow local, Jackie Hunter of One Arm Point Community School and its cultural group, to Adelaide last week to accept a prestigious award for the book on behalf of the community. It was chosen as one of two honour books alongside the winner of the Eve Pownall Book of the Year award, in the Children’s Book Council of the Year Awards for 2011.
Publishing house Magabala Books is proud to have been involved, with the book now into its second print run of 3000 copies since its release last year.
Once a fortnight, students at One Arm Point Community School, 280km north of Broome, attend culture days where they learn traditional hunting and health skills. With the help of Magabala Books, they turned their experiences into the hardback book, including students’ writing and photographs taken by teachers.
Local artist Robyn Wells helped students produce the artwork. Ms Hunter said while it had been an amazing experience for the community to put their stories of their history, lifestyle, environment and people into a book – it was an overwhelming concept that people all over Australia were now reading it and recognising it as an award-winning piece.
