General News
10 December, 2022
3,000 CHILDREN’S BOOKS donated to schools in Aboriginal communities
IN celebration of its 10-year anniversary, Moriarty Foundation has distributed 3,000 children’s books to 17 primary schools in remote and regional Aboriginal communities.
Moriarty Foundation delivers two well-known and highly regarded solutions to disparity, John Moriarty Football and Indi Kindi.
Through these programs, Moriarty Foundation reaches over 2,000 Indigenous children each week in 23 public schools and 19 communities in New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory.
Moriarty Foundation Co-Founder and Honorary Managing Director, Ros Moriarty, said the book drive would continue their efforts in Closing the Gap.
“The past decade has proved that our community-led, locally embedded and holistic approach enables families to unlock their children’s potential. The transformation has been exponential,” Mr Moriarty said.
“This book drive is inspired by one of the first - and continuing - initiatives at Indi Kindi, our groundbreaking early years solution for Indigenous children under five, which is a book delivery in Borroloola called Library Without Walls.”
Moriarty Foundation’s Library Without Walls Book Drive was made possible by generous donations of children’s books from leading Australian publishers Allen & Unwin, Big Sky Publishing, Affirm Press and Hardie Grant. Moriarty Foundation partner primary schools benefiting from the book drive include four schools in the Far North:
• Gordonvale Primary School, QLD
• Mareeba State Primary School, QLD
• Mossman State Primary School, QLD
• Yarrabah State School, QLD
“From starting with just 120 children in my home town of Borroloola to now reaching 2,000 Indigenous children, our teams have created an Australian success story of radically shifting the intergenerational disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal families,” Yanyuwa man John Moriarty AM, JMF Co-Founder/Co-Chair and the first Indigenous footballer selected for Australia, said.
“Our upstream approach tackles many complex challenges, including life expectancy, child development, physical and mental health, education, unemployment and juvenile justice overrepresentation.
“We succeed because we are Indigenous-founded, Indigenous-delivered, embedded, connected to culture, holistic and authentic.”
Indi Kindi is a groundbreaking early years program for children under five in remote Aboriginal communities. Indi Kindi is an associate member of national Indigenous early years peak body SNAICC, is represented on the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy Partnership established by the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, and aligns with the Australian Early Years Learning Framework.
As part of Indi Kindi’s Library Without Walls initiative, after each session, each child is given a book to take home to encourage reading and literacy.
Indi Kindi’s sector-leading, culturally-embedded learning on Country model, ensures young Aboriginal learners thrive.
For more information, visit www.moriartyfoundation.org.au
