Tuesday, June 25, 2019

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Gets Its Own Indigenous Language Translation

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, an Eric Carle classic, recently celebrated its 50th birthday!  Happy birthday, TVHC!  🎂🎈



But the celebrations don't end there!  The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been translated into at least 40 different languages...and recently, an Aboriginal language that was thought "virtually extinct" only three years ago now has its own translation of this beloved work!

"The Yuwi language of the Yuibera and Yuwibara traditional owners in the Mackay region has no fluent living speakers, and was considered extinct by the State Library of Queensland in 2015.

But thanks to a massive revival effort, a small group of volunteers has collated 1,000 words of Yuwi vocabulary, enough to translate the story, which turns 50 on June 3.

Yuibera and Yuwibara children in Mackay can now hear the story in their ancestors' words and the volunteers plan to translate local Indigenous stories into children's books next."

Even cooler?  The United Nations has officially dubbed 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages!



Click HERE to read the whole article, originally published by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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