Booked Out is very happy to have a long working relationship with Moulamein Public School, who have hosted a great range of our creatives over past years, sharing a visiting speaker with a number of schools in the area. They’ve run residencies with Lee Fox, Anne Spudvilas, Jan Wositzky, Narelle Oliver, Kevin Burgemeestre (see some photos of Kevin’s visit here; and right now have John Danalis working with them.

John can always be trusted to take his trusty folding bike along for a bit of extra exploration and is known to send a photo or two back to the office — what a big sky! Visiting the region has been very exciting for John as the Wamba Wamba people from the area form a large part of his own story (as told in his Riding The Black Cockatoo).

Wakool Burraboi Public School is one school to have already have worked with John this week. They sent us a copy of their newsletter:

This week we were thrilled to have author/illustrator John Danalis visit our school as part of our ‘My World Your World’ learning and teaching theme. John shared his own story that was closely linked to our region and the Wamba Wamba people around Swan Hill. John passed on stories filled with messages about respect and appreciation of culture which encourages self reflection and consideration of self, community and established perceptions. John gave each student an autographed picture card from his beautiful picture book. Each card featured a personalised cartoon. He also generously donated copies of his books to our school. If you would like to visit our room and share them please drop in. Alternatively they will be available for students to borrow from the library in Term 2. Thank you to Bruce and Lynette for coming in and chatting to John and sharing the wonderful drawings the children were creating to tell their own personal stories.

I think the following quotes from students and teachers reflect how much our school gained from John’s visit.

John was better than an excursion

–N. Mathers

It was a privilege to listen to John, he is an amazing story teller and a very talented man.

–J. Heywood.

He wanted to have his lunch with us instead of sitting with the teachers, that showed he cared about us

–B. Jukes

Later this year Moulamein will also host David Miller and Mark Wilson.