South Hedland's Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre project is making Indigenous languages available on educational apps for smartphones.
Coinciding with the celebration of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages (IY2019), the group is digitising language resources for critically endangered languages, including:
- Banyjima
- Putijarra
- Ngarla
- Karriyarra
- Nyamal
- Nyangumarta.
The project will establish Wangka Maya as a hub of digital innovation with mobile apps that capture and preserve Pilbara language and culture in exciting new formats.
A series of up to 10 mobile apps are being released, teaching words and phrases of critically endangered Pilbara languages.
The apps will contain multi-lingual narration, imagery, animation, music and video, technology to support learning and engagement in an innovative and culturally-sensitive manner.
This project is being funded with the support of the Indigenous Language and Arts program and it will also provide digital skills training for language workers.
