Fifteen-year-old Skye Cox has been learning palawa kani since she was a baby.
She says the Tasmanian Aboriginal language helps her feel closer to her nan, who passed away a few years ago.
“I became very attached to the language. My nan loved her culture,” she told SBS News.
Skye attends the pakana-ripana youth group run by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC), an organisation that a few years ago began work on two children’s books written in palawa kani.
Together, ‘yula kipli’ (‘Muttonbird Stew’) and ‘kipli mapali’ (‘Fruit Salad’) are the first picture books written in palawa kani. Both were released in 2019.
Skye says it feels fantastic to have these books in the local Aboriginal community.
“[It is great] because there’s a resource out there that the kids can actually read, and know that this is their home base,” she said.
“I think that it’s really important so palawa kani doesn’t become forgotten.”
‘yula kipli’ was written by Skye’s pakana-ripana youth group, while ‘kipli mapali’ was both written and illustrated by a different TAC youth group, pakana kitina.
‘yula kupli’ is based on a trip pakana ripana group members took to lungtalanana (Clarke Island) and truwana (Cape Barren Island) in December 2017.
As the title suggests, the book centres around muttonbirding, a practice Tasmania’s Aboriginal people have been doing for thousands of years.
Fourteen-year-old pakana ripana group member Peta Cabalzar said ‘yula kipli’ is about families and passing on knowledge.
“It’s about teaching the young ones how to do [muttonbirding]” she said.
“[The book] can be passed onto family members, and the kids can see how much fun it is learning about palawa kani and being a part of it.”
The pakana kitina group both wrote and illustrated ‘kipli mapali’.
SBS News/Sarah Maunder
palawa kani has actually only been around for a few decades. It’s made up of words retrieved from the largely lost Aboriginal languages that were once spoken across Tasmania prior to colonisation.
Rosetta Thomas, a youth and palawa kani language worker at the TAC, says work on bringing palawa kani to the fore has been underway since the 1990s.
Ms Thomas says the books represent another step towards restoring culture.
“I think that it’s really important that our community has a resource in palawa kani that they can share within their families, and have available to read to their children at night,” she said.
Rosetta Thomas
SBS News/Sarah Maunder
The two books, while not available for purchase to the wider public, have been enthusiastically welcomed by Tasmania’s Aboriginal community.
“Everyone was pretty excited about it, the community especially. Everyone got to take a copy home, to share with their families,” Ms Thomas said.
Peta hopes the books will have a great legacy.
“These books can be passed onto families, and kids can see how much fun it is to learn about palawa kani,” she said.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal language palawa kani uses only lowercase letters.
