I Bring Books to Kids Who’ve Never Seen One

Books are a lifelong passion for Brisbane mum-of-three Suzy Wilson, so when she discovered many Aboriginal children had never even held one, she decided to do something about it.

This month, Suzy is a contender for the Australian of the Year: Local Hero Award for her pioneering efforts in improving indigenous literacy. She talks to Zoe Arnold about her path to nomination.

Thirteen years ago, quit her job as a teacher to open her own bookstore in Bulimba on the outskirts of Brisbane’s city centre.

With three young children and a new business, life was busy but one day, Suzy decided to do some research on Australian literacy rates – what she discovered about our indigenous population left her deeply disturbed.

“Nearly a third of 15-year-old indigenous teenagers can’t read to an acceptable level, and that figure increases drastically in remote communities,” Suzy says.

“Can you imagine a world without reading? It’s unfathomable to most of us, but indigenous Australians have almost everything stacked against them to learn.”

Suzy found that most remote indigenous communities didn’t have access to books at all – there are no libraries or bookstores and few, if any, books in family homes.

“I started a read-a-thon program locally, which I hoped a few schools would join, to help raise money for indigenous reading programs remotely,” she says.

“I was blown away by the response: with more than 100 primary schools signing up to the initiative, our program began in earnest.”

Within a few years, Suzy’s program had grown so big she was to set up her own non-profit called the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Moving away from school fundraisers, Suzy has now taken Indigenous Literacy Foundation into more than 200 remote indigenous communities across Australia.

“We want to try and give young indigenous kids the same opportunities as other Australians,” she says. “We take books that are appropriate for their ages and experiences to them, and hopefully start a lifelong love affair with reading.”

Suzy has attracted some big names in the literary world to support her crusade with several renowned Australian authors including Andy Griffiths, Kate Grenville and David Malouf acting as Ambassadors for the program.

The foundation does take monetary donations, but asks the public not to send books.

“The book selecting process takes a long time, and involves a committee of dedicated people to make sure each book is culturally sensitive to that community,” Suzy says.

“What might be a popular book for kids living in Brisbane city may have no relevance to kids living in a dusty outback town.

“In recent years, we have started translating books into local indigenous languages, as we were finding a number of children had no understanding of English.”

In 2013, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation raised more than $730,000 dollars and donated more than 100,000 books to hundreds of isolated communities.

The Foundation now has several fulltime staff in Queensland and New South Wales, and has received generous donations including bequests to further its mission.

Suzy says she is inspired by the children she meets: “One little girl spoke five different languages at home because her parents and grandparents all had a different native tongue. She was learning English through school and at eight years old had her heart set on teaching as a career choice.

“When I started this project over a decade ago, one Aboriginal elder accused me of being a ‘ballander’: a fly-in, fly-out white person who wouldn’t come back to finish my work.

“Hopefully I’ve proven now that that isn’t the case, that we really want to change things for the better, for good.

“The more I visit the communities, the more I want this Foundation to work. It feels unstoppable.”

To find out more about the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, please visit www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au.