Fiji Children’s Books
Today we launched 5 bilingual Fiji children’s books at Kedgley Intermediate. The books were written by Fijian young people with the help of their families. I love this project – it’s called Ask the Elders – because it creates content for Pacific and other young people that’s written by Pacific young people and their families. Young people connect with their parents and grandparents/aunties/uncles to share stories and cultural knowledge associated with those stories.
One of the boys wrote about going out to pick kava in his family land on Koro island. His mum shared deeper traditions and understanding about kava from Koro island: when the oldest boy in the family goes to the plantation for the first time, he plants a kava tree; when a baby boy’s umbilical stump falls off, it’s buried under a kava plant. Only boys’ ones are buried. Girls’ ones are thrown into the sea. These are ways children learn about their connection to the land and sea. There’s a lot to kava!
The stories are translated into Vosa Vakaviti (Fijian language) and also have a QR code in them that children can click on and listen to the stories being read to them by the wonderful and legendary Fijian radio announcer Nemai Tagicakibau
