Overview

Join Aka Sue and her special friend, the dugong, in this wonderful story about family, culture, and caring for animals. Aka Sue lives on Boigu Island, and her grandchildren love spending time with her to learn about their Torres Strait Islander culture. Aka Sue has a very special way with the dugongs-big, gentle sea creatures that are very important to her people. She whispers softly, and the dugongs come close to the shore. The children feel so happy and amazed to see this magical moment! They start to understand why dugongs are so special in their culture. One day, something worrying happens. A baby dugong gets caught in a fishing net and is all alone. The island's men have to decide what to do, and the children watch closely. This is hard because it's about keeping traditions and also helping the little dugong. With Aka Sue's help, the grandchildren decide to save the baby dugong. They learn important lessons about being kind, helping others, and taking care of nature. Through their adventure, they also learn more about their family history and how much their culture loves all living things. This book is perfect for children and families who want to learn about Torres Strait Islander culture and the important connection people have with animals and the environment. It shows how family stories and traditions help us grow and care for the world around us. Come along with Aka Sue and her grandchildren on their exciting journey. You'll discover the wonder of the dugongs, feel the love of family, and learn why it's so important to look after our animals and nature.

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9781834381589

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The story is written in English by Emma Clisby Ingui, with special words in the Kala Kawai Ya language by Isaac Ingui and Norina Gibuma. Beautiful pictures by Aimee Wailu show the bright colours of the island and bring the story to life.Emma and Isaac are married with 3 adventurous, curious and caring boys who embarked on this long journey of creating their first bi-lingual book written in authentic Torres Strait language and English to provide stories where our children can learn their language and culture.Norina is one of Isaac's sisters, for he has many, and together they collaborated on the Kala Kawai Ya language to bring this story to life. It is very difficult to translate direct from English as Kala Kawai Ya is a very oral based language, so Emma encouraged Norina and Isaac to not worry about being word for word accurate with language translation, but instead speak to each other and decide how would they re-tell the story to young kids like they were sitting around the family table having a yarn. This helped them relax and tell the story in their own words. In this sense, the story should be read in English, and then should be read and taught in language to help our children learn sentence structure and paragraph formation when using their own language.Aimee is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist, mother and who helps share the magic of this story through her art.

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