Our 8th National Conference ended with the call for everyone present to meet up and yarn with Aboriginal friends and colleagues during Reconciliation Week, given the theme this year of More than a Word. Reconciliation Takes Action.
Aptly, with the Conference theme being Enhancing Early Literacy by Embracing our Cultural Diversity, the tone was set by Aunty Lyn Martin, when her Welcome to Country included her reading the Uluru Statement from the Heart to us.
We’re thrilled to tell you that Their Excellencies the Governor General and Mrs Hurley are attending our 8th National Conference on Thursday 20 May. Mrs Hurley (our Patron) will be opening the Conference. They will also be joining us for our Conference Dinner.
This is a great way for you to meet them, as well as receive up to date research and practice skills to incorporate into your early literacy practices.
Thank you to everyone in PTTR communities across Australia – for the way you have moved heaven and earth this year to keep the message of ‘Read with your Baby from Birth’ alive in your local communities.
Thank you to our wonderful donors who make our work possible – and to all the amazing volunteers behind the scenes. You are all awesome!
May you walk in peaceful and renewing places in this Season.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations as the first people of Australia. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We honour their cultural, spiritual and emotional connection to their traditional Country. We thank our Aboriginal Elders and colleagues who graciously, patiently and with humour lead us in Paint the Town REaD, Black and Yellow
Today marks the end of National Reconciliation Week 2020.
Reconciliation between our First Nations and those of us who came later, is entwined in the life of PTTR.
A beautiful example from this week, was a poster developed by Paint Shoalhaven REaD, Black and Yellow in NSW, teaching children about staying safe during Covid 19. It has been shared across Australia to all our communities. And this week is being updated by The Swan community in WA. From Yuin sands to Noongar lands.
In the middle of the world turning upside in the space of a few weeks, we are thrilled to tell you that our local PTTR community organisers are once more demonstrating their creative skills in how best to support families and children keeping the love of books alive — or introducing them to books for the first time.
From Paint the Swan REaD in WA, where staff from Clan Midland have spent ‘virtual’ time planning for how best to keep sharing the message of read, talk, sing and rhyme with your baby from birth, to Port Lincoln in SA, where the reading egg has still been visiting early childhood services, to D’Bay in Qld where Kooka their mascot has been very busy in services this week, through to Liverpool in NSW, where their mascot Gogo has been super busy practising nursery rhymes to sing with children online we are with you.
And in the background the PTTR Board has been meeting to implement strategic contingency plans
So, parents, grandparents, and all the family, keep an eye on your local PTTR facebook page and our national Paint the Town REaD Facebook Page for ideas and support. Check out your local library Facebook pages, too, for their live streaming of story times … you may even find your mascot there!
It’s National Child Protection Week and at Paint the Town REaD we believe we can all help to create the lighthouses and safe harbours that families and children need. #playyourpart #ncpw www.napcan.org.au
As we head off on Stage 2 of the Paint Australia REaD Book Relay, from Adelaide to Wollongong via rural and urban SA, Victoria and NSW we take with us $10,000 worth of books donated by Dymocks Children’s Charity for distribution to local communities, especially in the bush. A number of the books have also headed west to WA and remote SA.
It is through people like Dymocks and generous local communities that we are building the Relay Book which will capture how across Australia we value and celebrate our babies and young children by reading with them from birth so that they will be ready for learning at school. Please keep following the Relay on our Facebook page – Paint the Town REaD.
Our 7th National Early Literacy Conference was an outstanding success, starting with a PreConference Symposium on 20 March lead by Curtin University early literacy experts, A/Prof Suze Leitao, Dr Mary Claessen and Dr Mark Boyes with Dyslexia Speld’s Mandy Nayton.
That was followed by a WA State Parliament Reception, hosted by the Hon Janine Freeman, with the Hon David Templeman theatrically launching the Paint Australia REaD Book Relay.
The Conference ‘proper’ got underway the following day, with Aunty Marie Taylor Welcoming us so warmly to Country, and WA’s Governor Kim Beasley opening the Conference. Dr Bret Hart, Colin Pettit – WA Commissioner for Children and Young People, Greg Mitchell and Barbie Bates were ‘just what the Doctor ordered’ for Keynote speakers.
And Workshops led by experts from around the country, kept delegates inspired and involved.
No sooner than the Conference finished, did the Relay begin. After a week in the SW and Perth, it is now heading east. Keep track of it on Facebook – Paint the Town REaD!