Mackay Authors Katherine Battersby and Kim Kleidon speak at Whitsunday Voices literature Festival
Mackay’s Literature festival is set to bring a city experience to regional students as a star studded line-up will play host to thousands of children across North Queensland.
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Kim Kleidon says as far as community connection goes, there are many benefits to growing up regional.
But with an expanding digital landscape, the Mackay Author said she had noticed a gap in the curriculum where the need for critical thinking and integrity was lacking among children.
“I don’t feel there’s enough safeguards and I don’t feel there’s enough information out there for children in relation to them getting that for themselves,” she said.
She said she was hoping to fill that gap during her upcoming workshops being held as part of the 21st Whitsunday Voices Literature festival which kicked off yesterday.
Up to 7500 young students from around the region will return to Mackay over the coming days to hear from authors, writers and speakers across 80 events.
Ms Kleidon, who authored Flutterby, Butterfly, wanted to inspire young kids to stay curious and offer guidance via discussions around headlines and hooks to “empower the next generation for social impact”.
“Children are being given devices to do a variety of things, they’re online yet they don’t really have a lot of foundational knowledge about how to get the best out of online,” she said.
“I believe that gen z and alphas and beyond need to be empowered with a confident voice so that they can start making change that’s meaningful for them, the planet and people.
“I want to bring that sense of integrity to the digital media landscape.”
Among the star-studded line-up is Mackay’s own critically-acclaimed children’s author Katherine Battersby, creator of the Cranky Chicken series.
Growing up in Mackay, Ms Battersby felt the regional divide.
“I remember feeling so grateful whenever touring companies made it to the schools in Mackay and just how much that opened up my world and that idea of all the different ways you can choose to live your life and express yourself,” she said.
“It’s one of the most incredible things that these festivals do, allowing kids to access the arts and creativity in a way they wouldn’t otherwise get to.”
Ms Battersby will host her own Cranky Comic workshops where students will be asked to bring expressive characters to life in a hands-on class.
Whitsunday Anglican School Principal Andrew Wheaton said the festival offered a vital counterbalance to the digital world.
“We see students in this day and age immersed in social media, 24 hour news cycles and they’re just pulled into a digital world, something akin to what a lot of us adults have never had to experience,” he said.
“To go through a physical immersion of a book, going through the pages, talking to the author, I mean, it’s really transformational.
“Those future skills are going to be very much based upon relationships, communication, and emotional intelligence and that is so much what this event gives.”
Aussie icon Nedd Brockmann will also take the stage as this year’s keynote speaker at the DBI Literary Dinner on Friday July 18 to unpack the challenges he faced when he ran 4000 km from Perth to Sydney to raise money for homelessness.
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