Asia-Pacific partner
potential from World Congress in
Copenhagen
The 31st World
Congress held in September in Copenhagen was the best-ever attended, though it
has to be said this was mostly because of a very large number of delegates from
20 European countries.
I took every opportunity I
could to remind them that the New Zealand delegate had sat in an airplane seat
for 29 hours (and at some cost!) to be there.
NZ IBBY was fortunate,
through the generosity of an anonymous patron, for a representative to be able
to continue attending the world congress. (Previously, Wayne Mills attended
Cape Town in 2004, and Dr Libby Limbrick and Tessa Duder accompanied Margaret
Mahy to the 2006 congress in Macau).
By the end of four days’
networking, medium to long-term prospects for increased activities and
co-operation for New Zealand IBBY within the Asia-Pacific region, particularly
with Australia, Malaysia, China and India, were looking much improved.
The organization, as one
would expect of the Danes, was superb. Delegates enjoyed the official welcome
by Queen Margarethe at Glassalen (The Glass Hall) in the famous Tivoli Gardens,
a mayoral reception at the Town Hall, and the farewell dinner at a colourful 19th century circus venue.
In between times, we had
three intense days of plenary sessions and papers by eminent presenters from
all over the world, not to mention the networking which goes on in between. Not
surprisingly, the name and presence of Hans Christian Andersen was repeatedly
invoked.
You can read my full report
on www.storylines.org.nz, but here are some
highlights:
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The pre-congress workshop, a chance for delegates to share projects involving partnerships, also heard of how reading and books had been employed in Croatia and especially Venezuela (notably the floods in Caracas) to help ease the trauma suffered by thousands of young victims of wars and natural disasters. Not only the children, the schools, libraries and whole communities had been changed. Truly moving and inspirational.
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Presentation of the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen medals to two ‘grand old men’ of children’s books, author Jurg Schubiger of Germany and illustrator Roberto Innocenti of Italy.
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Katherine Paterson and 3 other writers presenting Readers’ Theatre, being dramatized readings from their works – an idea proven in American schools and literary festivals.
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An Asia-Pacific regional meeting where opportunities for sharing events, authors and ideas were discussed – probably for us the most valuable session of the Congress. The group comprised Australia, India, China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Korea, Japan and New Zealand.
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A suggestion came from the Europe region to establish a ‘European Capital City of Children’s Literature,’ each one chosen for a year. Why not a world capital, everyone else cried; why not five capitals, one for each of the major regions? Good question!
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Good to see our 2007 ICBD poster by Zak Waipara featuring on the front cover of the IBBY Annual Report.
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Likewise, good to see our Honor books displayed – Kate de Goldi and Jacquie Colley’s Clubs, Bernard Beckett’s Genesis, and Kararaina Uatuku’s translation of Melanie Drewery’s Koro’s Medicine.
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Mr Kang Woo Hyon of Korea, the driving force behind the Nami Island/Nambook success, was announced as committing 10 years’ sponsorship to the Hans Christian Andersen Award, replacing Nissan.
The voting for Executive
Committee saw 11 nominees for 10 places. It was noticeable and regrettable
that the strong European presence resulted in four Europeans (UK, Germany,
Belgium, Spain) and one each from Russia, Palestine, Malaysia, China and Uganda
being elected, and the standing member from India missing out.
A Resolution to UNESCO was
unanimously passed: that
IBBY at its recent General Assembly … issued a declaration that it is essential
that international and cultural meetings be freely available to professionals
around the world. It is not possible to work for peace, nor to learn to
understand one another, nor to exchange ideas and promote cultural
understanding freely if some countries’ citizens are excluded from the
conversation. We deplore the increasing difficulties for attendees at such
conferences to obtain visas and ask UNESCO to address this question with their
members.
I came away reinforced in
my belief that our IBBY membership, made possible by our similarly generous
consortium of publishers, is thoroughly worthwhile for the presence and networking
it is providing internationally for New Zealand publishing.
We have undoubtedly
acquired our own identity within IBBY, as the ‘most remote’ country of all, as
the homeland of Margaret Mahy and as one of the more active of small countries
(to our credit an HC Andersen Jury member (twice), Honor Book listings,
International Children’s Book Day hosting, Bookbird contributions etc).
Tessa Duder
Visit
the IBBY website www.IBBY.org for general
information about IBBY and where links will (I believe) take you to the
transcripts of the plenary sessions and other papers given at the World
Congress.
