Nga-ni kun-red ngarduk man-djewk na-kudji | A year in my country
Batchelor Institute and Batchelor Institute Press are proud to present Nga-ni kun-red ngarduk man-djewk na-kudji ‘A year in my country’, published in 2017.
Link to Batchelor Institute Press to purchase the book.
This is a book about seasons on Kune country by Jill Yirrindili and Aung Si, with illustrations by Jennifer Taylor.
Nga-ni kun-red ngarduk man-djewk na-kudji is accompanied by an app. In the Kune seasons app you can explore seasonal categories, search a dictionary for words and play games. The app explains the meanings of the words in the story, and you can listen to them to help you learn.
Kune is a dialect of Bininj Kunwok, a widely spoken language of Arnhem Land and the Kakadu region. Kune is spoken on the outstations in the Cadell River district south of Maningrida at the settlements of Korlobidahdah, Buluhkaduru and Bolkdjam, and on the surrounding inland freshwater country that lies on the edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment.
Other Kune people have contributed to this project, as participants in research undertaken with linguist Aung Si on Kune country between 2012 and 2015. In particular, Charlie Brian and Carol Liyawanga have contributed much of their knowledge of animals, plants, country and ecology. Murray Garde has also supported this project through allocating financial resources from Bininj Kunwok language research, access to the draft Bininj Kunwok dictionary and by checking spellings and meanings with Kune speakers throughout the development of the book and accompanying app.
We also acknowledge the important role of the Lúrra Language and Culture program at Maningrida College, who have supported the teaching of Kune in schools and hosted Aung Si during his visits to Maningrida.
The audio in the Kune seasons app was recorded by Daryl Redford and Murray Garde. Daryl is a Kune speaker from Buluhkaduru. He is a member of the Djelk ranger group who take care of the country in the Maningrida region. Daryl has a keen interest in protecting and preserving the animals, plants and landscape of the country owned by the Kune people and their neighbors.
This project has been supported by the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages Support Program, and auspiced by Batchelor Institute’s Division of Higher Education and Research (http://www.batchelor.edu.au/research/).
Aung Si‘s research in Arnhem Land was undertaken as part of a McKenzie Post-doctoral Fellowship hosted by the Research Unit for Indigenous Language at the University of Melbourne.
The Kune seasons app was produced as part of the Getting in Touch project – a partnership between the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics at Batchelor Institute and the Research Unit for Indigenous Language at the University of Melbourne.