River Business and the Powerful, Living Stories of Young Writers in Regional Tasmania
Dr Sarah Jane Moore is the author of the children’s book River Business which was written during the global pandemic. The book was written for families and young children and is imaginative and nature based. Conceptualised in response to the climate emergencies, River Business honours the life force embodied by the river and emphasises the importance of listening, caring and connecting to our water ways as symbols of peace and healing. Moore is a passionate advocate for the arts and believes that the diverse formats made possible through inter-arts projects in schools offer students agency, possibility and potential. lutruwita / trowunna Tasmania is a place of great natural beauty and Tasmanian wildlife, landscapes and connections inspired all elements of the book. The narratives articulated within the book are deeply immersed in the pedagogy of place, the possibilities of friendship and the healing nature of worlding, wilding and wondering.
In 2023, Sarah Jane was approached by PETAA (The Primary English Teaching Association Australia), a national not-for profit industry body supporting primary educators, to develop and deliver a creative literacy program. PETAA’s intention for the Young Writers Program was that Dr Moore developed a school program that ‘motivated and inspired students to be passionate about writing by giving them the opportunity to work with a real published author’. Dr Moore approached Flinders Island District High School Principal Joshua Moore about the possibility of the school hosting her during Harmony Week in March 2023 and the project was seeded. Joshua was supportive from the outset and stated in their first conversation together; ‘The students at the school have so many advantages and opportunities that living on Flinders Island provides and it would be fantastic to have you come and hear those stories, meet the students and help them develop their story telling and writing.’
Joshua placed Sarah Jane in contact with AST Nicole Jones who took carriage of supporting the project. Nicole and Sarah Jane had several discussions by phone and email. Their aim together was to develop the two days of face-to-face workshops that encouraged students to write, connect and share their ideas in a positive and supportive learning environment. Nicole, an experienced lead teacher suggested that the best approach would be for students to opt in to writing sessions and to focus on grade 3/4 and 5/6 small group cohorts. Nicole spoke to students and teachers about the workshop personally by visiting each classroom and talking about the project. By working in this way Nicole recruited 34 students to work on the Young Writers Program. Students asked Nicole if they could participate in illustration sessions and in response to this student interest, Sarah Jane developed a program of writing, storying and image making workshops. On the first day of the project, Sarah Jane read her book River Business and shared her experiences of writing poetry, songs, children’s books and short stories. She introduced a number of writing and image making exercises to the groups including writing in the school garden, playing vocabulary drama word games, timed theme writing tasks and writing collaboratively.
The Young Writers Living Stories project demonstrated how Moore used her creative pedagogies to extend the students’ writing education beyond the classroom and introduced writing and drawing for pleasure. Moore’s unique living story model delivered a program that modelled writing for success. The children of Flinders Island brought their stories to life and provided a scaffold for them to re(imagine) re(connect) re(new) and re(envisage) writing as a purposeful and optimistic, useful space for connection, engagement and sharing.