Last week school students around the nation ditched their uniforms and dressed up as their favourite characters to celebrate Children’s Book Week.

At Vincentia High lovers of literacy didn’t have to look far for inspiring stories, with a dozen of the school’s Indigenous students recently publishing two books of their own.

An anthology of poems and stories called ngayawanj barra barra-nggul (we belong to the land, we belong to the sea) was written and illustrated by students in years 7-10, alongside Vincentia High’s visual arts teacher Jaz Corr and award-winning indigenous poet Kirli Saunders.

A second book bagan, barra barra, mirriwarr (The Boys Who Found Their Way) was written and illustrated by Vincentia High mates Tyran Uddin and Kayden Wellington, also with Ms Saunders, a proud Gunai woman and Ms Corr, a proud Dharawal woman.

Both books have been shortlisted for the Karajia Award for Children’s Literature, ngayawanj barra barra-nggul in the non-fiction category and bagan, barra barra, mirriwarr in the picture fiction category.

The books, a collaboration with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), are written in English and Dhurga - the traditional Aboriginal language of the Yuin people.

The “serendipitous” project began last year when a colleague urged Vincentia High’s Dhurga language teacher Jonathan Hill to share the work being done at the school with the ILF, whose main focus is to help revitalise languages in remote parts of Australia.

Vincentia High School has been at the forefront of Indigenous language revitalisation for the past two decades, since community elders first began teaching Dhurga language lessons to students. Dhurga is now a compulsory language subject for all Year 7 students at the school.

“Dhurga lessons are not just about learning languages,” explains Mr Hill. “A lot of what we do is around culture and identity and connecting everyone to the land, learning from the land and the traditional practices that have cared for the land.”

Mr Hill was thrilled when the ILF, an Australian Book Industry national charity working with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the nation, agreed to collaborate on the project.

“Everything sort of fell into place because we already had a connection with Kirli Saunders, I had done some poetry work with her early in my teaching days, and Jaz is very prominent in the art world.

“The words and the book’s illustrations are spectacular and it was a really communal process with the students. Marion Worthy, a teacher at the school who is a language custodian, was also involved in the drafting process.”

The students, ranging in age from 12 to 16, brainstormed their ideas with Ms Saunders, Mr Hill and Ms Corr during two workshops over six days on Country in Booderee National Park.

During breaks the group would swim in the crystal clear waters of Jervis Bay, with some of the kids diving for abalone and fish and cooking them for lunch.

“We would come back and eat and then do a bit more thinking and creating and workshopping,” says Mr Hill.

In less than a week the students had filled a three-metre long blank piece of recycled cardboard with their words, ideas and drawings; the two books inspired by their storytelling, painting, fishing, swimming and cultural learning.

“The poems in ngayawanj barra barra-nggul celebrate the relationship our students have with the land and the sea, a relationship that is central to their identity, and that became really obvious during the six days we were on Country,” says Mr Hill.

bagan, barra barra, mirriwarr is about two boys who learn from animals about being on Country and connecting to the land and to each other.

That connection to Country, evident in the lyrical language and ocean-themed illustrations, resulted in both books being shortlisted for the prestigious children’s literature award which recognises the important message of First Nations authors and illustrators that honour a connection to Country.

Ms Corr believes “making art on Country” made the finished product “so much more potent”.

“There's a lot of power in the stories and the artwork, and that comes from the kids being on Country,” she says.

“I got the permission from the community to do a collaborative artwork - originally the idea was to have one massive canvas with the kids images on there reflecting their poetry, their language and their stories.

“But when the students started working with the community that turned into two huge canvases that were each 1.8m long. It was a beautiful, strong, visual language that we created with the community and we have now gifted back those canvases to Aunty Gai Brown and Uncle George Brown Junior of Booderee National Park.”

Aunty Gai Brown is Vincentia High School’s Aboriginal Education Coordinator and in her introduction to ngayawanj barra barra-nggul says the project is the “first time students from Vincentia High have had the opportunity to share their stories and language with a wider audience.”

That audience will grow even bigger if ngayawanj barra barra-nggul or bagan, barra barra, mirriwarr win their nominated categories and the students will join the winning ranks of one of their heroes - former AFL star Adam Goodes who won the inaugural Karajia Award for Children’s Literature for his book Somebody's Land: Welcome to Our Country in 2022.

This year’s Karajia and Environment Awards for Children’s Literature will be announced during The Wilderness Society’s Nature Book Week from October 11-19.