About
Learn about Busking For Change and how the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) help kids in remote Australia access books in First Languages.
Busking For Change Information Pack
Learn more about this program
Country Tells Us When Information Pack
Learn more about Country Tells Us When
Country Tells Us When Teacher Resources
To support teaching your children and students
ILF Factsheet
Want to learn more about the ILF? You can distribute this to participating families
Where your money goes
ILF is a registered independent charity. We do not receive government funding which allows us to respond dynamically to Community requests and work on long term and sustainable program delivery.
Funds generated by Busking For Change will be used to help more remote Communities access and create books in languages they speak at home. Our Community Publishing program, supports First Nations children, adults and Elders, living in remote and very remote Communities, to write, illustrate and publish books in languages of their choice.
This process often involves field trips to deliver writing, art and illustration workshops with experienced and acclaimed authors and illustrators. ILF Ambassadors like Alison Lester, Shelley Ware, David Lawrence, Justine Clarke, Ann James, Anita Heiss, Andy Griffiths and Gregg Dreise, and others, generously donate their time to support remote Communities with learning workshops. ILF Regional Coordinators help to coordinate audio and video recordings of books being read in language, and QR codes are placed in as many books as possible to help Community members hear the book being read in language.
Who started Busking For Change?
ILF Lifetime Ambassador Josh Pyke first started the ILF charity event in 2009, and subsequently raised over $50,000.
“I always thought it could be more than just a pub gig”
Josh Pyke says, “When my own kids started school I saw an amazing opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the ILF by turning Busking For Change into an annual event where kids would learn a song and collect sponsorship in return for their efforts.”
Each year, a new song will be added to the Busking For Change repertoire, giving primary schools the opportunity to learn and celebrate a new song and First Language - further sharing and promoting the rich diversity of First Languages across Australia.
Busking For Change Ambassadors
Meet the talented ambassadors that are helping to promote Busking For Change to raise money for the ILF.
Josh Pyke
Josh is an ARIA award-winning singer. He is leading the national roll out of the Busking For Change fundraiser and is an avid and engaged lifetime ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. As an accomplished author, Josh knows the value of reading.
Justine Clarke
Justine is an award-winning actress and long-standing presenter on ABC TV’s Play School. She has won an ARIA Award for Best Children’s Album with her fourth CD, A Little Day Out, and she’s also published best-selling children’s picture books The Gobbledygook Is Eating A Book and The Gobbledygook and the Scribbledynoodle and released a CD-book called The Ugly Duckling.
Timeline
You can hold your Busking For Change fundraiser at any time. You could host it during NAIDOC Week, Book Week, or at your end of year concert.
We suggest this timeline, culminating on Indigenous Literacy Day, Wednesday September 3rd!
July - September
Raise funds & rehearseSeptember 3
(or whenever works for you!)
Perform & celebrate!The Indigenous Literacy Foundation
Reading Opens Doors - that is, doors to future opportunities and choices. Our purpose is to invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote Communities to provide the tools and resources they request to shape the direction of their children’s literacy future.
ILF supports remote Communities across Australia. You can see where we work and what programs are running on our interactive Community Map.
Our Programs
Community Publishing
Supports Communities to write and illustrate their own stories in languages of their choice.
Our Impact
Almost 1 million
Culturally relevant books supplied
158
Books published
495
Remote Communities
