Elders talk ‘Colours’

Amelia Turner, Benedict Stevens and Matthew Palmer  enjoy reading the new book ‘Colours’, the first book in the ‘Speaking’ series, written in Standard English for parents to read with their children.

Their collaboration and feedback is invaluable to make sure that the Honey Ant Readers are relevant, appropriate and engaging for their kids.

Amelia Turner reading ‘Colours’

Amelia said, “This book makes them (the readers) realise what really happens with colours. Kids will like P49 because they like wearing bright clothes. P61 is good because it teaches the kids how nature works. … The books isn’t just about colours and nice pictures, it is also about Science. They are going to look at what happens in the day.
P57 is good for our kids and adults because these are birds the kids in the Centre know. Page 25, the kangaroo. This is good because we can talk about how we also have red and brown kangaroos too.
The animals on P 35 are also food,. We talk about which animals is good and which is bad. The first thing kids look at is colours so they will want to read this book.”

Benedict Stevens said:
“The HAR are important because they recognise and respect Indigenous language and culture. They are easy to read. Kids and adults find them interesting.
The pictures are good and they help people to read the words because they can understand them, not like other books that kids and adults can’t always understand. These books make kids want to read because they talk about them.”

Matthew Palmer

Interestingly most of the Central Arrernte people (Matthew’s people) who read this page call the echidna a ‘porcupine’ just as they do in South Africa. I wonder which word came into Australian and Aborignal English first?