Visit from Boori Monty Pryor

We were delighted to welcome author Boori Monty Pryor to Essex Heights on Friday 29 May. Boori is a multi-award-winning children’s author, musician and storyteller. He was the first Australian Children’s Literature Laureate (along with Alison Lester) in 2012-13; in case you’re wondering, the current 2026-27 Laureate is Andy Griffiths! 

Boori helped the children understand the past and present culture of First Nations People, through performative storytelling stemming from his own unique perspective of the world and life experiences. There were three sessions across the day for Prep, Year 1 & Year 2, Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6. During the day, Boori shared stories that were between 250 and 40,000 years old. The junior school learned the mosquito tree story, and Years 3 to 6 heard the honey tree story explaining the introduction of European honey bees to Australia as well as the Crocodile story explaining to be careful of crocodiles and pay attention to the colours of the rainforest for safety, rather than just fishing whenever you want to. Boori has shared these stories and others with many children throughout Australia, as well as his mother’s language to try to keep the language alive for as long as possible. 

It was wonderful to see students engagement and participation including their acting skills to dramatise stories.

Copies of Boori’s books are available in our Library: