SayITFirst has incorporated the innovative work Veronica Atwin pioneered as a Maliseet linguist in New Brunswick from the 1950s through the late 80's until her passing. Two major innovations have come of this work.
The first innovation is the introduction of phonetics alongside the Native Language so a parent or teacher has the ability to read the language sounds to the children. Many parents have commented that they have forgotten how much they knew of the First language sounds growing up. Upon reading the books to their children, they have gained confidence relearning the sounds and some vocabulary of their ancestors. Children are learning the sounds then graduating to reading the words in the Native Language.
The second innovation is the introduction of a free app called Aurasma. This app allows an iPad or other mobile device with a camera to hover over a book, see the image in a page of the book, and then launch an educational and entertaining video. As we build new books, we will build in videos of Elders reading each book out loud so that parents, teachers and children alike can enjoy the sounds and words of their newly acquired language.
All books are available in Maliseet, Mi’Kmaw, Ojibwe and Cree. As well, all books are written in English, the Native Language and a simplified phonetic system to allow the reader the ability to pronounce the words closely to how they should actually sound. All books have been previewed and translated by various Elders within the Maliseet, Mi'Kmaw, Ojibwe and Cree communities.
For book descriptions and other language versions of the same title, click on the red titles.
Be sure to watch the videos of Elders reading our stories. Books with video have an **.