Email the Author
You can use this page to email Grace Tongatua about Galumph - Yolŋukurr Mathakurr.
About the Book
This is a digital copy of a board book produced to encourage reading in homes. I am currently raising funds to produce additional copies of this book. It costs around $5 in supplies to produce a board book by hand. I am donating my time to their production to keep the costs as low as possible. Most families here are living below the poverty line. The proceeds from the sale of these books goes towards producing additional resources in Yolngu Matha to support families in improving their children’s literacy. Thank you for your support.
There is a YouTube video of the song that goes with this book at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-7RO0aZ6wg>. By watching our YouTube channel and looking at the Ads you are also supporting this project.
Children need to be read to every day, in a language that they understand.
Currently crowdfunding at: https://chuffed.org/project/balanda-miyalk
About the Author
Grace Tongatua has been involved with Yolngu communities since 2007 and has a strong passion for developing resources, for use by Yolngu Matha speakers with their children, to develop literacy in first language.
Grace has been teaching in the Northern Territory since 2006. She has taught at Borroloola, Milingimbi, Shepherdson College on Elcho Island and Ludmilla in Darwin. She has a Bachelor of Laws (honors first class), a Bachelor of Education and a Graduate Certificate in Yolngu Studies. She is currently studying towards achieving a Bachelor of Indigenous Languages and Linguistics.
As part of the Graduate Certificate in Yolngu Studies, Grace collated and edited an illustrated children’s dictionary in Yolngu Matha (Djambarrpuyŋu). She spent over $2,000 to self-publish this and copies of this work are currently being used at the school at Milingimbi.
Grace Tongatua also maintains a Youtube Channel ‘Learning Yolngu Matha with a Balanda Miyalk. <https://www.youtube.com/user/BalandaMiyalk>.
Grace is currently exploring ways to fund the publication of a revised edition of the dictionary as well as other early childhood literacy materials. These are for use in the home. Not for use in the schools as literacy begins in the home.
Currently Grace is enjoying staying at home, on Galiwin’ku, looking after her two boys.