‘Yuta Gonydjuy’: The ‘new wax’ Warramiri Yolnju parable as transculturation literature and ‘Lonydju’yirr literacy’ at ‘Gawa’

‘Yuta Gonydjuy’: The ‘new wax’ Warramiri Yolnju parable as transculturation literature and ‘Lonydju’yirr literacy’ at ‘Gawa’ Journal Article

English in Australia

• Author(s): Van Gelderen, Ben, Guthadjaka, Kathy
• Published: 2019
• Volume: 54
• ISBN: ISSN 0155-2147

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Abstract: 'Yuta Gonydjuy (The New Wax)' is a children's story written by Kathy Guthadjaka, an Indigenous Elder from Gawa, Elcho Island, northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. 'Yuta Gonydjuy' has been illustrated and published in both Warramiri and English via the bilingual Literature Production Centre at Galiwin'ku, in 1998. There is also a digital, interactive version of the story, and it is available online (as alphabetic text only) as part of the 'Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages' (2015). 'Yuta Gonydjuy' is an allegorical parable with both traditional Yolnju and Christian themes, and considering the 'transculturation' history and ontological priorities of the Warramiri Yoltu, 'Yuta Gonydjuy' is a most appropriate text. Furthermore, the potential for 'Yuta Gonydjuy' to be utilised within a 'Lonydju'yirr' (aligning side-by-side) multiliteracy approach at Gawa is compelling and offers fresh insight into a generative, 'bothways' Yoltu pedagogy.

• Urls: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=679065709350427;res=IELAPA
• Keywords: Children's stories, Aboriginal Australians--Languages, Literacy, English language--Study and teaching