The Children's Book Council of Australia has featured a First Nations teacher and author during this week's national Book Week celebrations, with Indigenous woman Jasmine Seymour designing this year's CBCA Book Week Poster.

Ms Seymour, a Dharug woman from the Hawkesbury area of New South Wales designed the poster whilst also selecting the accompanying theme "dreaming with eyes open" to represent her upbringing in Sydney's metropolitan fringe.

"I thought that it (dreaming with eyes open) was a nice way to bring in Indigenous perspectives," she said.

"When I was thinking about the theme and the poster and what I wanted it to be, I wanted to have my story, the Dharug story represented in that poster."

The poster features colours, fauna and flora native to the Hawkesbury region and which are also prevalent in traditional stories from the area.

Ms Seymour is also a published author having written four children's books, all with Indigenous perspectives. Image: Booktopia.

"Uncle Wes (Marne), one of our Elders tells us that in the beginning, the birds come first and then it's the animals and then the people," Ms Seymour said.

"So in the poster there's three layers of storytelling as well."

The choice of animal also has personal significance for Ms Seymour, whilst the two Indigenous children represent her and her younger brother in their childhood days.

"The burubirangal, which is the kangaroo in the picture, it represents my clan totem, my tribe totem."

"And then the two kids are me and my little brother, we used to just ramble through the bush in Maraylya all the time.

The CBCA has described Ms Seymour's poster as images that are about country, dreaming and all those things that are hidden but also seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu5GJBb3B5c

Ms Seymour explained that this description partly relates to ancient carvings in the Hawkesbury area which were made by her ancestors.

"In the Hawkesbury along the sandstone there are many, many Indigenous engravings that were made by my people, the Dharug people."

"We're not allowed to go to those sites because they're private property, so we're never allowed access to them."

"But when you do go there, they're often still there and they're still very much living."

"And if you just open your eyes, it all comes back, it's all still there and it's never been lost."

Ms Seymour is a school teacher by trade and also has tertiary qualifications in Indigenous language education.

She began writing children's literature that included Indigenous perspectives after identifying a cultural need for literacy resources in traditional language to suit young people.

Ms Seymour (centre) alongside the Children Book Council of Australia's Erica Góngora and Kayt Duncan at the CBCA's Book Week Conference held earlier in the year. Image: CBCA.

"The books were developed because they were no Dharug language resources for kids, there were no books about us at all," she said.

"We're really working hard to revitalise Dharug language at the moment or wake it up and get lots of kids speaking yet it."

"We really hope to build a whole heap of literature for that."

Ms Seymour currently has four children's picture books published, with the hope of producing more in the future.

CBCA Book Week has been celebrated nationally in Australia since 1945, with an annual theme being dedicated to the week-long event since 1987.