Indij Readers — For Little Fullas, for Big Fullas

Indij Readers is a small cultural organisation and publishing company based in Sydney, Australia. We develop and publish contemporary Aboriginal stories. We also produce docu- movies around some of our stories (well, the truth is, we've got ONE doco and we're keen to make lots more!!) and we've recently marketed our first rap CD. Of course we have the rap books to go with them... AND the raps were written by a real live rapper, 'Monkey' Mark Ross, and some kids from Boggabilla Central School (up on the border between New South Wales and Queensland), and the illustrations throughout the rap books are great graf art.
 
All Indij Readers authors and illustrators are cool and 'deadly' Indigenous Australians. Some live in cities, some are from the outback. The authors of our story Inside the Sydney Swans with Michael O'Loughlin are teenagers from Doonside Technology High School, in western Sydney. They had a great time hanging out with the Sydney Swans football team, while researching information for their story about a great AFL Sydney Swans' footballer.
 
Our youngest author is Dylan Russell. He's eight years old and his story is called Nan and Dad and Me at the Zoo (that's the one book with a movie!). We all went by ferry across Sydney Harbour to Taronga Zoo for a day, to have adventures and help Dylan make his book. The next day back at school, Dylan and his Nan (who is a famous Australian artist, Elaine Russell) made paintings of their favourite animals at the zoo.
 
Of course these stories all come with literacy lesson notes, cultural information and activity sheets because, besides having fun with good stories, we all know that reading and writing skills are excellent and powerful tools which every kid in the world needs to have. Having fun and learning to read and write, all at the same time is one smart way to operate!