Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Math Catcher Outreach Program:

This is to inform you that we have just released the animated film "Small Number and the Old Totem Pole" in the Sliammon language.

The story was translated in the Sliammon language by a group of elders, Ochele (Betty Wilson)  and Gail Blaney from the Sliammon Nation and Eva and Herman Francis from the Klahoose First Nation, and two linguists,  Marianne Huijsmans, UBC, and Su Urbanczyk, UVic. 

In Ochele's words, "I think that the linguists and community elders enjoyed being part of the collaboration. I liked the way I collaborated with so many people. They all enjoyed the story so much."

In my view, the most exciting outcome of this project is that, for the first time, we recorded two (very) young speakers of the Sliammon language, Gabrielle Adams and Jade Touchie. Ochele, who narrated the story, invited Gabrielle and Jade to act as the voices of the animals.

The film, together with a bilingual Sliammon - English transcript of the story, is available at
http://mathcatcher.irmacs.sfu.ca/story/small-number-and-old-totem-pole/sliammon and at
http://www.sfu.ca/mathcatcher/StoriesMovies.html#totem.

Please find a few minutes to take a look and enjoy the sound of the Sliammon language.