Female: Yesterday was Wednesday, today is Thursday ay. Well you know what we're going to do? We're going to read a story. Can you tell me then, what's this part of the book called?
Children: The front cover.
Female: Ah, deadly. What's this part?
Children: Back cover.
Female: Too clever huh?
Children: Spine.
Female: The spine.
It's something that we do here with the kids, getting them to know the parts of the books. When they go home to their parents, they tell their parents what they know about the books, and parents will come back and comment and say, so and so, you know they know all the parts of the books and they tell us the names of the - the titles and all that.
Female: My father knows a place we can only reach by boat. Hey we got some special place in Yarri too ay, where we can only go by boat ay. We can't drive a car there, or we can't go on a boat there, we only got to go by boat ay.
Sometimes just sitting down and reading a story, the kids do get lost and don't really understand it. Being a part of it makes them enjoy it a little bit more and it helps them relate to the story, that they're a part of it.
Female: Wombat stew. And who are all the animals in our story?
Child: Wombat stew.
Female: We've got a wombat. There's our wombat. Blue tongue. Do you want to put some bugs in our stew? Can you find some bugs? Can you find some bugs and put it in our wombat stew. And what happens in our story? Does anyone remember what happens in the story?
Child: There's a koala.
Female: Yeah.
Female: Look at that boat. Anybody got a boat in Yarrabah?
Child: My papa.
Female: Your papa got a boat yeah?
Child: Yeah he got a speedy boat.
Female: He got a speeding boat?
I love reading stories to them and just interpreting the standard Australian English part back to Yarra Linga so that the kids will understand.
Female: When we arrive, all the cockatoos rise from the forest in a squawking cloud. How do they make - what noise them cockatoos make? What them bird - you see them birds here in Yarrabah? What their name?
Child: That's a parrot.
Female: Yeah that's a parrot ay, that's a parrot bird. Look that tree, we got a tree like that here?
Children: Yeah.
Female: What that tree called?
Children: Coconut tree.
Female: Coconut tree. We eat the fruit on that?
Children: Yeah.
Female: Okay. You like eating coconut?
Children: Yeah.
Female: Oh me too.
I like to connect the story back to their own background at Yarrabah, and they will tell you a lot of wonderful things.
Female: They say they like cooking that fish that way, you too? You too, you cook a fish that way? Hey, you know when we go in the mud out here, what's them things we find in the mud? You know them things we eat?
Child: [Wirral 3:13].
Female: That's it ay, Wirral ay, we eat…
Children: [UNCLEAR 03:17].
Female: We eat Wirral, ay, and we cook a Wirral like that, ay, on a fire ay.
Children: They look like crabs.
Female: And crabs, yeah. We are saltwater people and, yeah, we love seafood and boats, there are a lot of boats here.
It's just a lovely story that connects to our community where we live.
Female: But then I feel sad. That little boy say he feels sad now, because the day has gone so quickly, and they can't stay there. They can't sleep there, because that's a special place there. So they've got to pack up now, they've got to pack their load up and they're going to go back in the boat - look Mercedes - look they've got to go back in the boat and they've got to go back home. Isn't that a beautiful story.