The Dungala Kaiela Writing Awards is a new project run through the Shepparton Library branch of the Goulburn Valley Regional Library Corporation (GVRLC), to encourage Indigenous people of the region to write well and develop good standards of literacy. There are awards for children, youth and adults; and for stories and poems. Several Indigenous community organisations have also come aboard as sponsors of the event. An Awards ceremony event is planned for NAIDOC week 2012.
The idea for this project grew out of a conversation, just last year, after a get-together of Indigenous women who gather periodically at the Shepparton Library to talk about their writing. The conversation was between Sharon Atkinson-Briggs who is running a Yorta Yorta Language project with the Dungala Kaiela Institute, Kella Robinson who is the Woonghi Indigenous Project Officer with the GVRLC, and Jackie Yowell, who had also attended the writers’ group. They were discussing ways to encourage more local Indigenous women – and the community generally – to write, to express themselves, to set down their stories.
The group found that the existing regional mainstream competition had yet to succeed in engaging participation from the Indigenous community. They then asked the question, what if this community ran their own competition, with their own judges and criteria? With the commitment of sponsorship of $2000 from the ACF sub fund Fairer Futures, the women decided to try it. Shepparton Library stepped up, with the programs manager Jan Sutton and librarian Libby Woodhouse working hard at the administration needed to back Kella (who is only part-time). Together they soon marshalled a team of volunteers, advisers and judges to make the Writing Awards a reality. The idea quickly won the support and additional sponsorship from several local Indigenous organisations
All the people involved are looking forward to celebrating the presentation event for the inaugural Dungala Kaiela Writing Awards 2012, as part of NAIDOC week at Shepparton Library on 13 July 2012. With similar commitment and enthusiasm, the group hopes to improve the Awards and run them again next year.
It is hoped these Awards will become a regular event – annual or biennial.
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