Help Train More Marys

Mary Waites is the coordinator of the Brewarrina literacy campaign. And now she’s the star of a major documentary on our work, In My Own Words. The film follows Mary’s journey helping a group of adult students learning to read and write for the first time. “It’s a whole new world out there and...

Continue reading

To lift literacy levels among Indigenous children, their parents’ literacy skills must be improved first

Bob Boughton, University of New England and Jack Beetson, University of New England In this series, we’ll discuss whether progress is being made on Indigenous education, looking at various areas including policy, scholarships, school leadership, literacy and much more. There’s a large adult-sized hole in Australia’s approach to boosting literacy levels among Indigenous children...

Continue reading

Measuring long term impact

In late 2016, work commenced on an Australian Research Council funded, multi-year longitudinal study of the impacts experienced by communities that have undertaken Literacy for Life Foundation’s Campaign. This study is being supported by the University of New South Wales, the University of New England, the Lowitja Institute and includes input from representatives of...

Continue reading

Literacy for Life Foundation receives inaugural award from the Australian College of Educators

The Foundation has been awarded the inaugural Cynthia Briggs Empowerment through Education Award for our recent work. See the citation below from the Australian College of Educators. The ‘Yes, I Can!’ Aboriginal adult literacy campaign’, overseen by the Literacy for Life Foundation (www.lflf.org.au), was launched in Wilcannia in February 2012. The campaign uses a...

Continue reading

Leaps and Bounds in Literacy

Question: What do the following two words have in common? ​ Discourage Cauliflower ​ Answer: They both include all five vowels – a e i o u. If you answered correctly, well done! These two words were brought in to class by one of the students in Intake Two of the Brewarrina First Nations...

Continue reading