Young Indigenous Footy Players from NT Tell Their Stories

MEDIA RELEASE

“SHOCK ‘EM!”

Young Indigenous footy players from NT tell their stories

‘Shock ‘em!’ – a new book written by a team of young players from the Big River Hawks in Katherine – will be launched on Saturday 23 July at Hawthorn Football Club, Melbourne.

‘Shock ‘em!’is the 44thbook to be published in the Indigenous Literacy Foundation’s Community Literacy Program which provides writing and illustrating workshops for Indigenous children living in remote Australian communities. The program brings together some of Australia’s most talented and successful authors with children of all ages to create and illustrate their stories and to develop important literacy skills.

Anita Heiss who is an ILF Lifetime Ambassador and Manager of the Epic Good Foundation, ran the workshops for the eight young boys over a three day period in Katherine. Working with Dr Sandra Phillips and a team of designers and publishers at ILF, the whole book was produced in less than a month.

‘As football players the Big River Hawks are impressive. As writers they are deadly!’ said Anita Heiss.

As well as entertaining pieces of fiction about playing in a Hawthorn grand final, Shock ‘em! includes personal pieces where each boy has written about significant places in their lives as well as sharing letters to their heroes: their dads, Dr Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, and sports heroes like Eddie Betts.

DrAnitaHeiss is a lifetime Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and Manager of the Epic Good Foundation The two Foundations partnered with the Hawthorn Football Club to bring the literacy project to fruition.

“We are incredibly proud of the result”, said Karen Williams, Executive Director of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. “We learnt so much reading the book about the boys and their lives and we hope that it has given them a taste of what its like to be an author. The ability to be able to tell your story, who you are and where you come from is as important as playing in a grand final match. They are skills you need for life”.

Heiss, who has authored 15 books of her own found the experience of working with the young players enriching on many levels.

‘It was an extraordinary experience helping the team translate their love of football into stories they wrote to share with others. Their passion for the game helped create suspenseful pieces of fiction. I believe it was the opportunity to write in a safe space that allowed them to be so productive, and I felt privileged to be part of the process of creating Shock ‘em!”

Stuart Fox, CEO of the Hawthorn Football Club said, ‘We’re aware of the huge amount of talent the boys have in terms of their football, and now we see they are strong in storytelling as well. Education and literacy in particular is of key importance to us in rolling out of our Indigenous Program through the financial support of the Epic Good Foundation. Our new partnershipwith the ILF means we can appropriatelyfulfil not only our commitments but our desire to help build stronger educational foundations in Katherine for the future of our young players.’

Shock ‘em! will be launched by Luke Hodge on Saturday July 23 at 11am

For media enquiries contact: Karen Williams(Indigenous Literacy Foundation) – (02) 9280 0644/04040 75924 Anita Heiss (Epic Good Foundation) – / 0414 467 849 prKerrie Brewer (Hawthorn Foundation) -