Strelley Literature Production Centre Collection

Since the 1970s, literature centres in Aboriginal communities across Australia have published illustrated books for use in bi-lingual schools.

One of these was located in the Strelley community, and published more than three hundred books. The Strelley community are unique among Aboriginal communities as they first began as the ‘Strike Mob’ who walked off the pastoral stations of the north-west in 1946. They went on to run their own mines, pastoral and agricultural operations through the 1950s and 1960s, before settling on Strelley Station, purchased with the proceeds of mining by hand in the Pilbara, in 1970.

The stories of the books published by the Strelley Literature Production Centre are sorted into ten genres or themes. These can be found in the Subject (topic) section of each book.
- Daily life
- Daily life - bush trips
- Daily life - culture
- Teaching/learning
- Teaching/learning - culture
- Teaching/learning - natural world
- Narrative
- Mob history
- Traditional stories
- Ceremony
They were not only read by the children of Strelley, but were read by the wider community too, and make a distinct body of literature produced and read by an Aboriginal community.

The books are mostly in Nyangumarta, a language adopted as a lingua franca by people who typically spoke several Aboriginal languages. These books have been digitised with the permission of Nomads Charitable and Educational Foundation, who run Strelley School today, and Nyangumarta Traditional Owners, whose descendants live in Strelley, Warralong and Port Hedland today.

Additional artworks by Solomon Cocky Ngalyarrkiny have also been included in this collection. Solomon Cocky Ngalyarrkiny was a driving force behind the production of stories and art at the Centre and beyond.

Collection summary: A sample of writing and artworks from the Strelley Literature Production Centre, which produced more than three hundred books from 1977 to 1993