The WA Indigenous Storybook

Project Overview

Click on the right image to download a copy of the 10th Edition of the WA Indigenous Storybook. Other editions can be accessed at the bottom of the page.

PHAIWA has now produced ten WA Indigenous Storybooks, the most recent focusing on the South West/ Great Southern region of WA. The past funders of the books include The Government of Western Australia and Healthway. Healthway has provided further funding for another edition of the storybook which focuses on showcasing the many positive community based projects occurring in rural and remote Aboriginal communities and celebrating people who are contributing to the social, economic, health and environmental outcomes for their people.

PHAIWA believes story telling is a creative avenue to disseminate information to many people in a user friendly and non-threatening way. In this project, Aboriginal practitioner’s stories will be shaped by their personal history, biography, gender, social class, location and those of the people in the setting/story. These stories will hopefully encourage change in how public health projects are planned, delivered and disseminated through directly with the storytellers in supporting them to publish and present their stories, or indirectly through communities and partners who read a story and consider it replicable in their own settings.

Download your copy of the Storybook by clicking on the image.

The Storybooks aim to:

  • Embrace a holistic view of health. Stories will be drawn from the health sector but also from many sectors outside of health – such as education, employment, housing, environment, transport, animal management, sport and recreation, alcohol and drugs and many others.
  • Showcase community based programs that could be replicated in other communities to improve or influence the many social determinants of health. Many stories will highlight that local solutions are often the most effective.

This video showcases the history of the West Australian Indigenous Storybook project which was funded by Healthway and produced by the Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA (PHAIWA). The WA Indigenous Storybook project is a publication which shares and celebrates positive stories, programs and projects about Aboriginal people in WA..

All WA Indigenous Storybook Editions (click to download): 

PHAIWA has formed an overarching Steering Committee to oversee the concept and to assist with recruiting storytellers. The first Storybook which focused on the Kimberley region was launched in October 2011. The second edition which focused on the Perth and Peel Regions was launched in August 2012. The third book contained stories collected from the Goldfields/Esperance and Great Southern regions. The fourth was on the Mid-West and Pilbara region and the fifth book took us back to the Kimberley region. The sixth edition focused on stories from the Gascoyne region and the seventh edition brings us back to the Perth/Peel region. The eighth edition is on stories from the Goldfields region and the ninth edition features stories from the Pilbara region. The tenth edition took us back to the South West Great Southern region. We launched this edition in Albany on 4th of June and simultaneously celebrated our tenth edition.

If you would like to look at a Storybook, please download a copy from the link below. If you would like to know more about this project, please contact Melissa Stoneham at m.stoneham@curtin.edu.au.

If you would like to follow our Facebook page please click on this link.

To read about the Pilbara Storybook launch, click here.