Country is our teacher: literacy, comprehension and the knowledge that protects us

By Kelly Trudgen, National Indigenous Immunisation Lead, NCIRS and Gumbaynggirr Nation woman 

On the first Wednesday of September, communities across the country celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day, an initiative led by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.  

This year’s theme, Country Is Our Teacher, is a reminder of something Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have always known: that knowledge doesn’t only live in books; it lives in Country, in story, in language and in the relationships through which it is passed on.  

Our communities have been teaching and learning this way for tens of thousands of years – long before the written word arrived on this continent.

That broader understanding of knowledge is worth holding onto when we talk about literacy. Literacy is so often reduced to the mechanics of reading, but it has never just been about decoding words on a page. It is about comprehension: making meaning, connecting new information to what we already know and being able to act on it.  

Comprehension protects health

Think about what healthcare providers ask of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families every time they engage with the immunisation system. Families are asked to understand why a vaccine matters, what disease it prevents, when each dose is due and how to navigate schedules that can differ depending on age, location and risk.  

They are also asked to make sense of consent forms, information sheets and reminder letters – documents that are often written in dense, clinical English instead of plain language, let alone families’ first languages.  

When that information isn’t understood, it’s not because our people lack capacity, it’s because the information wasn’t built for comprehension in the first place. 

Health equity begins with understanding

When families genuinely understand why immunisation protects their children, vaccination becomes an informed choice, rather than a compliance exercise.  

Comprehension goes further than vaccines alone. Understanding health promotion concepts – how housing, nutrition, hygiene and access to care all shape the risk of disease – gives communities the knowledge to address the socio-economic determinants of health that drive so much preventable illness in the first place. Literacy, in this fullest sense, is a protective factor. 

Learning from Country  

Building health literacy isn’t only about helping communities understand health information, it’s about immunisation professionals learning to communicate in ways that respect how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities already share knowledge: through story, relationships and trusted voices, such as Aboriginal Health Workers and Practitioners, and in language if that’s what community wants.  

Resources developed with community input, in plain language and first languages consistently do what a generic fact sheet cannot: they make information meaningful.

This Indigenous Literacy Day, I’ll be celebrating the storytellers, the language holders, the teachers − on Country and in classrooms – who are shaping the next generation of strong, curious readers and thinkers. Because a child who grows up understanding the world around them is a child equipped to protect their own health, their family’s health and their community’s health.  

That is literacy doing what it has always done for our people: keeping us strong. 

Learn more