Articles on creating video content for the web.
.jpg)
When I visited Mossman State School to demonstrate the Kuku Yalanji eBook we've been working on I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and feedback. My visit coincided with the launch of the Kuku Yalanji Advisory Group initiative a couple of days later. It attended by the school community, advisory group members and representatives of Queensland Department of Education.
The ebook uses the story of Kubirri that is embedded in the mountain peak overlooking Mossman Gorge and the surrounding area as an interactive narrative told by a Kuku Yalanji elder. It's an introduction for beginning students of Kuku Yalanji language. The resource is designed for class lessons using an interactive whiteboard or individual learning on tablet or computer. It was especially valuable to have the insight and feedback from teachers to refine the first version and to help plan the roadmap for future ones.
While at the school I recorded the prepies singing: "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" or rather "Dukul, binda, bungku, durra" for the ebook. Shutting the air-con down to eliminate background noise for the recording took a little time and I marvelled at the the skill these five and six year olds had in manipulating both English as well as Kuku Yalanji in their morning class. It is a precious time inter education. Also important to cultural learning and included in the ebook are the family relationship names which in many communities are used in preference to first names, reinforcing relationships between community members. These names also give insight into the thinking that binds community together and how relationships and their names cycle through the generations. These subtleties only come through learning language and are lost in English.
I was fortunate to stay with John Hartley and his mother, the matriarch of the extended family at Cooya Beach just out of Mossman. I recorded an interview with John and Bennet Walker on land that is being developed as a cultural art and learning site. The existing shelter will be augmented with shelters for artists and craftspeople, a nursery for bush foods and medicines, a board walk along the shoreline where the river meats the sea as well as infrastructure for bore water and solar electricity. Bennet has a plan for bush regeneration, markets for arts and crafts people and traditional experiences on country for community and tourists.
Most striking was how timely our project is not only for young people but also for older members of the community who suffered a punitive regime that denied culture, language and basic human right and are eager to claim the knowledge and wisdom of their ancestors. It is also heartening to see how those institutions that were so oppressive are now amongst the strongest advocates. All the same there is still a long way to go.
The Kubirri eBook Project is an initiative of First Peoples Foundation Inc funding also by N.E.D.Nurturing Evolutionary Development Inc Assoc.
