Thread by @IndigenousX

One of my battles for 2021 will be the education system. I know racist books in school libraries is rife Bcoz of the feedback by teachers, parents & librarians. I wasn’t happy with Qld Ed response & still not sure much has been done since this blew up 👇🏽

https://twitter.com/flashblak/status/1311234368988307457

I’m told a directive was sent to regions to urgently check their shelves. But I haven’t heard that’s actually occurred. Besides it’s not just Qld, I’ve been contacted by ppl around Australia concerned how big the problem really is. How best should schools tackle it?

Weeding shelves should be a continuous job for librarians, but clearly it’s not happening & there’s no sense of urgency. I speak regularly with my kids librarian. We now have a good relationship & speak often. She said the momentum of our work was lost

We are writing an article together for a librarian magazine about our experience, so I feel we will get to hear more about how our work impacted each other. She has told me it’s completely changed her perspective & she actively works to educate herself more now.

Tbh. Indigenous staff have been asking for changes like culling the library of racist books for eternity. But it’s not up to Blak staff to always do the heavy lifting & it’s not guaranteed change👇🏽

https://twitter.com/sharon_davis_/status/1333315770936217600

Which is why I’m keen to talk more with librarian & principal. White educators who dropped the ball, acknowledged they did & work to change. The librarian said when I confronted her she felt so embarrassed this was in her library. But she had to get over her pride & work with me

For those drama queens saying we were book burning 🙄 we didn’t. The books sit in the librarians office for reference & teachers education. removing books was a joint, considered process based on ensuring no harm to our kids exposing them to racist material.

There is incredible work being done by Indigenous specialists in the GLAM space so there’s really no excuses by educators

https://twitter.com/aliaonline/status/1326380335119167488