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The story is written in English by Emma Clisby Ingui, with special words in the Kala Kawai Ya language by Isaac Ingui and Norina Gibuma. Beautiful pictures by Aimee Wailu show the bright colours of the island and bring the story to life.
Torres Strait Islander Products We LOVE
Join Aka Sue and her special friend, the dugong, in this wonderful story about family, culture, and caring for animals. Aka Sue lives on Boigu Island, and her grandchildren love spending time with her to learn about their Torres Strait Islander culture.
Aka Sue has a very special way with the dugongs - big, gentle sea creatures that are very important to her people. She whispers softly, and the dugongs come close to the shore. The children feel so happy and amazed to see this magical moment! They start to understand why dugongs are so special in their culture.
One day, something worrying happens. A baby dugong gets caught in a fishing net and is all alone. The island's men have to decide what to do, and the children watch closely. This is hard because it's about keeping traditions and also helping the little dugong.
With Aka Sue's help, the grandchildren decide to save the baby dugong. They learn important lessons about being kind, helping others, and taking care of nature. Through their adventure, they also learn more about their family history and how much their culture loves all living things.
A Cultural Collaboration Between Connecting The Dots Through Culture and Tara Treasures.
Dive into a story of connection, culture, and conservation with the Waru and Dhangal Finger Puppets Set, a heartfelt collaboration between Connecting The Dots Through Culture and Tara Treasures. “Waru the turtle and Dhangal the dugong miss Zenadth Kes, Torres Strait Islands, and want to go back for a visit. With the help of their Kindy friends, they get back to the Islands and have a deadly adventure in their Community.”
This unique set features Waru (the Sea Turtle) and Dhangal (the Dugong) two beloved animals deeply rooted in Torres Strait Islander culture. Through these finger puppets, children and adults alike are invited to explore traditional stories, respect for sea life, and the wisdom of First Nations knowledge. You will also receive an A4 copy of the book “Waru and Dhangal visit the Torres Strait Islands”.
What Makes This Set Special
A Cultural Partnership – Collaboration to honour and share the richness of Torres Strait Islander traditions through educational play.
Handcrafted with Care – Each puppet is made from natural wool felt by skilled women artisans in Nepal under fair trade conditions.
Storytelling With Purpose – Inspire meaningful conversations about heritage, identity, and the ocean with these culturally significant sea creatures.
Ideal for Learning Environments – Perfect for early childhood centres, classrooms, and home learning to encourage inclusive and diverse storytelling. 3D Design – Use them as finger puppets or imaginative soft toys.
Product Details
Length of Turtle Finger Puppet: 11cm
Length of Dugong Finger Puppet: 11cm
Weight of Set: 130g
Product photos displayed on this page may include accessories, props, or additional items for styling and presentation purposes. In some cases, images may also feature other products from our collection to show how they can be used together. Unless explicitly stated in the product description, only the item specified is included with your purchase.
These Australian made Torres Strait Topic cards are the ultimate tool for those of you wanting to learn more about Torres Strait Islander culture, history and perspectives. Each card is beautifully illustrated with comprehensive information on a Torres Strait topic. Each card set contains a QR Code to link you to an exclusive Torres Strait Topic Padlet, where you have access to downloadable teaching resources (mini-units, lesson plans, class worksheets) that have been created by Zeyawgub, and are aligned to the Australian Curriculum v9.0. The padlet also contains links to credible and authentic web resources. The set of 36 cards measure 10.5cm x 14cm and are printed by First Nations-owned business, Indigi-Print.
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Who
we are
The story is written in English by Emma Clisby Ingui, with special words in the Kala Kawai Ya language by Isaac Ingui and Norina Gibuma. Beautiful pictures by Aimee Wailu show the bright colours of the island and bring the story to life.
Emma and Isaac are married with 3 adventurous, curious and caring boys who embarked on this long journey of creating their first bi-lingual book written in authentic Torres Strait language and English to provide stories where our children can learn their language and culture.
Norina is one of Isaac's sisters, for he has many, and together they collaborated on the Kala Kawai Ya language to bring this story to life. It is very difficult to translate direct from English as Kala Kawai Ya is a very oral based language, so Emma encouraged Norina and Isaac to not worry about being word for word accurate with language translation, but instead speak to each other and decide how would they re-tell the story to young kids like they were sitting around the family table having a yarn. This helped them relax and tell the story in their own words. In this sense, the story should be read in English, and then should be read and taught in language to help our children learn sentence structure and paragraph formation when using their own language.
Aimee is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist, mother and who helps share the magic of this story through her art.
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