REAWAKENING YANKUNYTJATJARA RESOURCES

October 12, 2020

The MLT recently conducted fieldwork in the APY lands to reawaken and reimagine some underutilised and out-of-print resources.

Through meetings with educational experts in the region to get an idea of their wants and needs, it was decided that videos published online would be a great way for teachers and students to access existing language content.

The filming of learning videos took place in the APY lands over a week. The videos cover a broad range of topics, from live readings of Yankunytjatjara children’s books to discussions about tools and local plants.

Children’s books, published a number of years ago, were read on traditional Yankunytjatjara country by MLT Co-Manager and Yankunytjatjara speaker Karina Lester. The books capture a range of literacy levels and are culturally appropriate. These book videos will assist anangu children to build up literacy skills in their language.

Informative bilingual videos were created around culturally significant plants and their uses. These videos range from digging for maku (witchetty grubs), to the various uses of the kurara (Dead-Finish). These videos will support children to learn specific names of plants in language, while also helping the general public to gain an appreciation for anangu ecological knowledge.

The videos are currently being edited and will be published on the MLT Online Language Learning Portal and distributed to schools.