Project Report - La Trobe University

Creating the Ichananaw
Children’s Storybooks
An example of the process involved in making one of the
indigenized educational materials
Chumanay (Elisa) Dawing (center) retells the tale of Majagwon and
Fasnî. Her daughter-in-law Agom (Arlene) Dawing (far right)
translates the story orally from Chinananaw to English. Maria
(second from left) documents Agom’s English translation.
Chumanay’s granddaughter Monique (Marriel Lyn) Dawing (left)
and husband Maglim (Jose) Dawing (near right) listen to her story.
For each story, the Ichananaw
storyteller told the story orally in
either English or Chinananaw (the
Ichananaw’s indigenous
language), usually over a cup of
coffee in their home, on the porch,
or in the front yard. All
storytelling took place in informal
settings, and was usually either
voluntarily offered by the
storyteller or followed our or a
fellow Ichananaw’s request for a
particular story. Some stories
were told by young children who
had heard them from their
parents or grandparents, but most
were told by adults.
If told in Chinananaw, an
Ichananaw friend, relative or
companion translated the story
orally paragraph by paragraph as
it was told. Maria noted down by
hand the oral English version of
the story as it was told, and
sometimes we used a digital voice
recorder (to be used for reference
purposes only).