Music as a Global Resource: - International Council for Caring ...

documentary heritage of the Northern Territory. Heritage is “what can be passed on”. The stories
of Northern Territory children, their families, and community members, and their experiences of
schooling are a part of that local heritage.
i-stories: Northern Territory Library coordinates this arts-based community library program,
which is designed to increase family and community involvement with early childhood learning
opportunities in remote communities. For Indigenous children in these communities, English is
not their first language and many children do not have significant exposure to English before
beginning formal schooling. Project officers are arts-based practitioners with remote community
experience, specialist multi-media skills for resource development, and experience/knowledge of
young children, youth and adult learning. Project Officers are employed by Northern Territory
Library to work with local families, government departments and community-based organizations
in remote areas. Together they create bilingual literacy materials, i.e. bilingual singing stories,
picture stories, talking stories and e-stories, with accompanying artwork, music and audiovisuals.
These print and electronic materials are created using iPad creative apps and XO laptop
multimedia programs. They are tangible, long-lasting products and meaningful social resources in
each community.
RESEARCH AND EVALUATION:
Monitoring and evaluation are embedded as a continuous process in program design and delivery.
Program teams include families and collaborating agencies in a participatory framework, who together
decide what data to collect, how to collect the data, how the data is analysed, what results are important to
share with others, to whom to disclose the results, and how the results are reported. Subject to budget
constraints, an impact evaluation is conducted by external consultants.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
http://artstories.org.au [under construction]
www.ntl.nt.gov.au, http://www.laptop.org.au/
Publications:
Bartleet, B. L., Brunt, S., Tait, A., & Threlfall, C. (In press). Community Music in Australia and New
Zealand. In K. Veblen & D. Elliott (Eds.), Community Music Today. USA: Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers.
Tait, A., Musco, E., Atfield, M., Murrungun, L., Orton, C., & Gray, A. T. (2010). Weaving new patterns
of music in Indigenous education. In J. Ballantyne & B. L. Bartleet (Eds.), Navigating music and sound
education. Meaningful Music Making for Life, 2: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Newcastle upon Tyne.
(Tait et al 2010).
Tait, A., & Murrungun, L. (2010, Fall). ArtStories: Early childhood learning in remote Indigenous
Australian communities. Imagine, 1 (1).
Wallace, R., & Tait, A. (2006). Community control & knowledge management: practitioners &
community working together. Paper presented at the Connecting Intergenerational Communities Through
Creative Exchange Conference 2006, Melbourne.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Organization: Northern Territory Library
Address: PO Box 42, Darwin. NT. Australia.
Phone: +61 8 89220796 and Fax: +61 8 89220760
Contact person: Anja Tait
Email: anja.tait@nt.gov.au
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