The Kaurna Dictionary is a valuable resource for our community to learn and share our language and culture. This book will enable our community to revive their connections to land and each other to respect the past and to further develop the future of our people as a community. It is an encouragement for all people to come together and learn together.
ALISON DENEE Chairperson, Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi
Kaurna Ancestors are lighting up the sky, singing and dancing while Kaurna hearts burst with pride as we announce the arrival of our history-making, first-ever Kaurna language dictionary.
Kaurna to English and English to Kaurna translations give learners quick access and the ability to identify the creative processes used to translate and adapt old words to new for modern-day application that is rooted in ancient integrity. The dictionary includes words for people and relationships, animals, landscapes, seasons, emotions, ceremonies and practices, and includes new words for sports and technology just to name a few.
This simple, comprehensive and insightful dictionary is easy to navigate and is grounded with ancient and modern Kaurna voices and robust historical and contemporary sources.
There is much more to words than a superficial one-word counterpart and this is an opportunity to understand Kaurna people and ways of talking and deep listening where one word can have many meanings in a language with only 14 letters in the alphabet and 3 of them vowels.
Many warrior Elders past and present walked miles to reclaim our language. This long- yearned-for dictionary is testament to them and an invitation for learners to sit in a Kaurna language camp to learn, share and speak in a way unheard of before.
KATRINA KARLAPANA POWER Senior Kaurna Woman
