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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-26 Daily Xml
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LIVING BOOKS

Ms BREUER (Giles) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Volunteers. Can the Minister for Volunteers update the house about the upcoming Living Books event, being presented jointly by the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, the Office for Volunteers and the State Library of South Australia?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Volunteers, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister Assisting in Early Childhood Development) (14:37): I thank the member for Giles for her question. Living Books is really an exciting festival event, and it is going to be launched on Friday, and will run through until the following week up until Sunday 9 March. As the member for Giles said, Living Books is a venture involving the Office for Volunteers, the State Library of South Australia and the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, who have all joined together to celebrate volunteering by providing a 'living library' service.

We have been absolutely delighted by the number of people who have accepted an invitation to share their interesting life stories. And it is a great idea, a 'living library' where the books are human beings, 'catalogued' and listed under various subject themes, and loaned for up to 30 minutes at a time. There is a fabulous range of 'living books', embracing great diversity, with something like eight categories, with many interesting and passionate people with great stories to tell.

Some of the names members will recognise are Peter Goers and Carole Whitelock from the ABC, Russell Starke, Eric Bogle, author Susan Mitchell and Lieutenant-Governor Hieu Van Le. The Australian women's basketball coach Jan Stirling, from the Opals, will be there, along with Che Cockatoo-Collins and Shannon Motlop, two of our famous AFL footballers, and what great champions they are. I am also told that the member for Stuart has accepted an invitation to participate. I am sure he will engage and titillate borrowers with some wonderful recollections of his time both in and outside of this house.

But we will also have stories from people that many people have never heard of, but who nonetheless have some amazing stories of endurance and achievement throughout their lives and of overcoming real adversity. There is an 87 year old, Flora Cleveland, a Glaswegian who enlisted with the WAF in World War II. She volunteered for oversees service and was posed to Cairo where she met her Australian husband, moving to his home in South Australia after the war. She then became a teacher at 37 years of age, and I understand is still fit, alert and healthy today.

There is Troy-Anthony Baylis, a young Australian with Aboriginal and Irish heritage. Troy-Anthony is a politically active artist who has had 14 solo and over 40 group exhibitions in Australia, Asia and Europe. He is described as being part of a generation of young Aboriginal Australians who express their contemporary dreaming through manifestations of visual literacy and the expression of cultural evolution. South Australia has a fantastic record in volunteering, as everyone knows: the best in the nation. I thank the people who have willingly donated their time to share their unique stories with others and also those volunteers who will be there ensuring the program is managed throughout that week.

With the exception of not being able to take the living books home, books can be borrowed by members of the public in a similar way to library books. Living books will be available during the festival from the Mortlock chamber of the State Library from 1 to 9 March from 10am to 1pm daily. I am delighted to have been involved in bringing this idea to life as part of the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts.

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