Three vibrant children\u2019s books created in the remote Northern Territory community of Yirrkala are celebrating Yol\u014bu culture, language and storytelling – through the eyes and voices of Elders, families and schoolchildren.Published by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), the books were developed in a collaborative workshop with local artists, writers and students from Yirrkala School.The books reflect the school\u2019s long-standing commitment to bilingual \u2018both ways\u2019 education – an approach that values and nurtures Yol\u014bu knowledge and English literacy side by side.<\/p>\n
One of the standout titles, On the Way to Yala\u014bbara, was written and illustrated by respected Yol\u014bu Elders Aunty R\u00e4rriwuy Garramu Marika and Aunty Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs. <\/p>\n
The story recounts a real-life trip to the sacred homeland of Yala\u014bbara, blending personal memory with deep cultural significance.\u201cIt\u2019s a very beautiful place,\u201d said Aunty Merrkiyawuy. \u201cThe water is clear and the freshwater hole is right next to the sea. A lot of turtles come up and lay their eggs all along the beach.\u201dAunty R\u00e4rriwuy explained the inspiration came from a trip with a visitor from Melbourne University. \u201cWe decided to take her out to our homelands. But you have to know how to drive on sand… I thought about the photos we took on that day and our adventures of not quite reaching Yala\u014bbara – and we decided to turn it into a book.\u201d<\/p>\n
The illustrations combine Aunty Merrkiyawuy\u2019s detailed pencil and ink drawings with background watercolours created by Yirrkala School students. <\/p>\n
The story was written first in Dha\u014bu language, then translated into English. The Yol\u014bu version, Bala Yala\u014bbarali, will be kept for community use, while the English edition will be shared more widely.Another title, \u014a\u00e4\u1e49\u1e0fi ga Gatapa\u014ba (Mum and the Buffalo), tells a humorous and unexpected tale of a family\u2019s close encounter with a buffalo while out collecting pandanus. Written by Djawundil Maymara – a Ma\u014bgalili woman from Bawaka – the story is bilingual in Dhuwaya and English, and features illustrations by Yirrkala students.The third book, Gu\u1e3bun\u2019 (Billabong), is a vibrant counting book that introduces young readers to twelve local animals found around the billabong, also written in Dhuwaya and English.<\/p>\n
Together, the three books are a powerful expression of Yol\u014bu storytelling – led by community, grounded in Country, and guided by language and kinship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three vibrant children\u2019s books created in the remote Northern Territory community of Yirrkala are celebrating Yol\u014bu culture, language…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-2265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}