by Yvonne Low
I had the most wonderful and enlightening visit to the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature or NCACL during a recent trip to Canberra earlier this year.
Through Twitter I had connected with the lovely NCACL Director Dr Belle Alderman AM and when I heard about the special Exhibition ‘Story Time – Australian Children’s Literature’ a collaboration of NCACL with the National Library of Australia and that it was due to close soon, I grabbed the opportunity to make it to Canberra and visit them both.
NCACL is located in the Library of the University of Canberra (Belconnen), staffed by Centre Director Dr Alderman and her small team of committed and enthusiastic volunteers. The Centre may be located in a small space, but it’s a precious world where a huge and valuable collection is being amassed of all things Kid Lit.
The team collect and preserve everything they can get their hands on: original manuscripts, storyboards, roughs, dummy books, original artwork, original books including translations, magazines, reviews, rare books, the CBCA Children’s Book Week artwork… the list goes on. They are even on the look out for publishing merchandise – bookmarks, promotional material, toys, flyers, stickers, memorabilia; anything that will help to tell the story about a particular children’s book and the production journey behind it. There are files on every published Australian children’s writer and illustrator (even emerging ones like me!). Please contact them, if you have something that would interest them.
Every now and again, the general public, enthusiasts and industry professionals can enjoy the fruits of NCACL’s labours, when an exhibition is mounted such as ‘Story Time’ at NLA, showcasing a lot of NCACL’s own collection.
This was a beautiful (and free!) exhibition, displaying many literary and artistic gems, including manuscripts, notes and sketches from Mem Fox, Elyne Mitchell, May Gibbs, Alison Lester and Jackie French. Original artwork from Shaun Tan, Graeme Base and Bronwyn Bancroft featured amongst many more treasures, including the very first Australian children’s book, written by the ancestor of best-selling authors Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell. Bob Graham’s picture book dummies were wonderful to view – NCACL has a major collection of his work. I had so much fun reminiscing with books from my childhood, and lingering over the gorgeous artwork, absorbing the artistic process with initial sketches, roughs and dummies, and reading early draft manuscripts.
The NCACL collection began with the visionary Lucy Rees (Lu Rees), first president of the CBCA ACT Branch, donating her collection (literary correspondence with authors and illustrators, and 1,000 Australian children’s books), which became the Lu Rees Archives and is now known as the NCACL. The original collection has grown to 46,000 books with 4,300 in 67 different languages, along with 523 research files on Australian children’s authors, illustrators and publishers.
This collection is being preserved for posterity. The value to our Aussie heritage, education, children, writers, artists, illustrators, researchers, academics and the general public is immeasureable and deserves our attention and support. Unbelievably, the Centre receives no government funding! They exist through the support of the University of Canberra, the work of volunteers, donations and the few grants that they can attract.
Visiting the Centre was such an eye-opener. I would encourage anyone who’s interested in children’s books, art and literature to organise a tour of the NCACL, and at the very least, to support and spread the word about their important work. The Government (and corporate donors) need to sit up and take notice!
