Oral to literate traditions: emerging literacies in remote Aboriginal Australia

Public debate on literacy in remote Indigenous Australia emphasises a narrative of failure. The discussion commonly focuses on the low literacy and numeracy benchmarks achieved in remote Indigenous schools. Little attention has been paid to the short history of literacy in isolated Indigenous societies, the shift from oral to literate traditions and how people use literacy in everyday social contexts. Yet with increased access to digital technologies over recent years, it is evident that new multimodal literacy practices are emerging. In this way we are seeing remote Indigenous youth acquiring oral, visual, gestural and written modes of representation and communication and using them in everyday social practice.