According to Unesco, there are at least six thousand consigned languages in constant risk of disappearance. Every two weeks one of them is lost. In the furthest place in the world, we are working to preserve our language and culture.This project aims to create children's stories in Rapanui language so that our children can access the language in new formats other than oral.
Easter Island, belongs to the state of Chile, which recognises Spanish as the official language. Over the years, the island's community became bilingual and the Spanish was adopted as the primary language. At present only 10.9% of the children that inhabit Easter Island understand their original language and the Rapanui, is becoming extinct. "If I speak in my root language, the language is attached to one's own being, identity, and worldview." Virginia Haoa, Living Human Treasure
Through this project, we are creating educational and cultural instances where children can interact directly with the language. Usually this interaction is only orally within families. Access to books in the Rapanui language will allow children to interact not only with the oral component of the language, but also to see it written, to understand it through the support of the illustrated images and to practice pronunciation through the audio book version.
This project will deliver illustrated books in Rapanui language and audio book versions to 1,000 Easter Island children. With this material, reader development activities will be shared on the island. Our ultimate goal is to prevent our language from dying, enhancing its daily use, teaching future generations and sharing it with the rest of the world.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
