7 Literacy Learning: the Middle Years Volume 22 Number 1 February 2014 Regenerating Indigenous literacy resourcefulness: A middle school intervention Sally Godinho, Marilyn Woolley | Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Victoria Jessie Webb, Kenneth Winkel | Australian Venom Research Unit, University of Melbourne, Victoria ABSTRACT This paper shares the process and outcomes of implementing a literacy initiative in a remote Indigenous community. The Pocket Book production involved genre-based constructions of Indigenous student knowledge of country, nutritional value of bush foods, and first aid treatments for venomous bites and stings. The process provides a model for other similar contexts. Introduction This article discusses a literacy intervention strategy undertaken with middle school students at a remote Indigenous community school in the Northern Territory. This intervention was implemented by members of the Sharing Place, Learning Together project, an interdisciplinary team comprised of educators from the Graduate School of Education and the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Melbourne. A key project aim is to support the development of English literacy through Science, Health and IT cross-disciplinary connections. It is the project’s intent to place the cultural and intellectual resources students have acquired outside the classroom at the centre of planning for learning, and to ensure that culturally appropriate pedagogies inform teaching practices. Maningrida College, a P–12 government school, is situated on the coast 550 kilometres east of Darwin in North Eastern Arnhem Land. It is one of the largest and most diverse towns in the Northern Territory (NT), and home to more than ten Aboriginal cultural groups. Seven main languages are spoken in the area, predominantly Ndjebbana, Burrara, Nakara, Kunwin’ku, Gurrgoni, Rembarrnga and Jinang, with English being spoken to various degrees of proficiency. The My School website reveals that the College has an enrolment of 554 students — 97% being Indigenous students with a language background other than English. The level of student disadvantage is reflected in the school’s Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) rating of 581 – 1000 being the average – and a school attendance rate of 53% (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d.). In an attempt to address issues of middle school disengagement, the College’s Language and Cultural Coordinator, has fostered a Learning on Country program. This government-funded program, one of four piloted in Arnhem Land, is designed for Indigenous students to physically learn ‘on country’ through day trips and bush camps within the large Djelk Indigenous Protected Area surrounding the Maningrida township. The Learning on Country approach acknowledges that, in remote communities, Indigenous knowledge and local development aspirations must be a central component of teachers’ practice and their pedagogic design (Altman & Kerins, 2012; Fogarty & Schwab, 2011). Support from the Sharing Place, Learning Together team was sought by the College’s principals to