BirdWords: EWA's Publishing Wing

These posters are part of a series recognizing how connected birds and people are, and how we look and listen to the birds to know the weather, where foods are, and many other things. This poster series was first made in Kaytetye and other Aboriginal Australian languages by M. Turpin, V. Dobson, M.K. Turner, Tommy Thompson, Alison Ross, Amy Ngamperle, Hilda Ngamperle, Harry Janima, Eileen Ampetyane, Carol Thompson, and Elsie Numina. We continue the series here with permission from Myfany Turpin. Freely available for use for educational and non-commercial, with attribution. Published by EWA BirdWords Publications.

Birds That Tell People Things posters can raise awareness of local languages, folk names, and cultural information about birds. It is important that the creation process is guided by local knowledge-holders who can judge what information can be shared widely, and which not. We have used the Ayoreo poster, for example, to distribute in local schools so Ayoreo children can peruse what their elders shared. We invite community language/culture workers to create and share your own local bird names and knowledge using this powerpoint slide template (of course, following all local permissions and informed consent procedures):

The idea of this template is to follow the layout as much as you like, but select and substitute your data and photos in each text box and photo area on the powerpoint slide. The slide in this file is sized to be printed as a very large poster (thus the text font is rather small for reading on a screen or if printed at a smaller size). We recommend that you replace the background landscape/ skies photo with one that depicts the land/skies of the region your birds come from. Save as a pdf and print with a large-format printer. Let us know if you make one and if you'd like to share it here.