A WORKSHOP for budding children's book authors ran for the first time in Hamilton this week, with a focus on First Nations stories.
Our Yarning is a free, digital library being created by, and for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country by not-for-profit Library for All.
The program has been running since May last year, with workshops from Darwin to Derby.
On Wednesday night, the first Hunter workshop was held at Hudson Street Hum, Hamilton, and facilitated by cultural safety academic, publisher and Ngiyampaa man, Dr Mark Lock.
"We want to demystify the writing process," Dr Lock said.
"You don't have to be an academic, you don't have to have a degree, you just want to tell a story about the community to your kids.
"These books are everyday stories people are sharing with each other at home with themes like health, hygiene and connection to country.
"It's their local culture, their local town, their local country and all their local stories. We are getting local authors to put them into books."
The aim of Our Yarning is to get 500 stories in the collection, which will be made available as a free e-resource or a $10 hard copy.
As "mirror books", the collection is being done in a way that allows young First Nations people to see themselves represented on the page.
Our Yarning program manager, Anneke Barnes, said the program is about "levelling the playing field".
"As a white Australian woman, and as a little girl growing up, I saw myself in every book. It was a mirror book that reflected me as a white kid, in white culture, playing in a white country," Ms Barnes said.
"These books are about nurturing a joy of reading and a joy to keep turning the pages. If you see yourself on a page, you're more likely to want to keep turning the page.
"Any kid, to be able to read, means that they are going to be able to be part of the world around them and navigate that world on their terms.
"For me it talks to reconciliation. It talks to equality and equal access to education."
Biripi woman, Vickie Fair, travelled from Campbelltown on Tuesday to attend the writing workshop.
"I have zero experience in writing children's books but have 25 years experience in raising six children," Ms Fair said.
"I have read a lot of books to my own children and the big gap in the market is books written by Aboriginal people with Aboriginal lived experiences in them.
"Being a mum and a grandma as well, I would like my kids to walk into a library and look at the shelf and say 'a Koori fella wrote that book and I can actually see my experience in that book'."
Ms Fair said the Our Yarning initiative is about "truth telling". As well as having First Nations stories told, she said, the books highlight a diversity of Aboriginal experiences through local voices.
"We have over 300 language groups across the country and in each language group there is a diverse group of people," she said.
"We could have thousands of different stories just based on our language groups and that's the beauty. That's what this could bring.
"Too often the experience of our young people at schools has been through a deficit lens rather than looking at the strengths."
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