Boodja barna: Land creatures by Jayden Boundry and Tyrown Waigana

A strongly bound board book in a size that will fit a small child’s hand is offered in this book about Australian animals, offering their names in two languages, Noongar and English.

Brightly coloured illustrations sit on each page and encourage young readers to recognise and say the words in the two languages.

Seventeen animals beginning with a small bidit (ant) and a bibdjool (lizard), djalkat (bilby), kwaka (quokka), all grow in size ending with the kangaroo (yangka) and emu (wetj). Younger readers will love learning the new words for the animals they know about and some they don’t know, and will join in with the reader as the pages are turned. 

Author, Jayden Boundry is Wadjak Balardong Noongar and Badimaya Yamatji. He is a Noongar language teacher and cultural consultant, didgeridoo player, traditional dancer and storyteller with Ngalak Nidja, and artist, Tyrown Waigana is a Wardandi Noongar (south-west cape country) and Ait Koedhal (Torres Strait Islander) multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer. Both young men are multi talented and bring the range of their abilities to this publication, the first of a new series of Nyoongar First Words. 

The Noongar language is spoken by 14 different groups across south west Western Australia, and this series of books will further promote knowledge of the language and encourage its use. 

Themes: Language, Noongar, Aboriginal languages, Aboriginal themes, Australian animals.

Fran Knight