4 min
Book Club - Jasmine Seymour’s Open Your Heart to Country Final Draft - Great Conversations
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- Books
Children’s books are a portal into ideas and imagination and when you read them with the little ones in your life you are supporting their developing language and cognitive skills, their sense of wonder and their critical thinking.
Today I’ve got the latest from Jasmine Seymour, Open Your Heart to Country.
Jasmine Seymour is a Dharug woman. She is a language teacher and language activist, whose work is reawakening the Dharug language and this is so prominent in her writing. She is the author of children’s books Baby Business and Cooee Mittigar. Open Your Heart to Country is her latest and it is a visual and linguistic feast for the senses.
All of Jasmine Seymour’s books for children feature both Dharug and English language. There are more than 250 Indigenous languages on this continent. The area across which 2ser broadcasts includes the traditional lands of the Dharug people and we actively try to acknowledge and pay respect to the custodians of that land. But I often find myself wondering what it means to acknowledge and pay respect. It’s a great set of words to utter but how can we pay that respect everyday?
Open Your Heart to Country (and all of Jasmine’s books) offer young readers the chance to discover ideas and language of the Dharug people. Many children of preschool age learn aspects of local culture and language in their schools. Warami is a Dharug greeting that children learn as part of their everyday. In Open Your Heart to Country Jasmine Seymour invites readers that “by reading the Dharug words told with their own English translations you will hear this story with Dharug Ears”.
The book is also an explosion of colour and light that is guaranteed to excite young minds to discover things in their local area.Each page brims with a kaleidoscope of animals and landscapes depicting Dharug land.
This is a book to be shared and through sharing, enriching the minds of readers young and old alike. Learning a second language has so many proven benefits, from supporting listening skills, memory and concentration. Second language skills also support problem solving skills and critical thinking. Our brains just kinda grow when we engage with other languages!
But it isn’t just about what it does for us. Sharing Open Your Heart to Country with young readers in your life introduces them to the land they live on. It tells them that it is someone’s land and begins the stories that have been denied in this country. Most importantly though, it is an opportunity to share in these stories and understand Dharug culture. An invitation to practice the acknowledgement and respect and make it a part of their developing lives.
Children’s books are a portal into ideas and imagination and when you read them with the little ones in your life you are supporting their developing language and cognitive skills, their sense of wonder and their critical thinking.
Today I’ve got the latest from Jasmine Seymour, Open Your Heart to Country.
Jasmine Seymour is a Dharug woman. She is a language teacher and language activist, whose work is reawakening the Dharug language and this is so prominent in her writing. She is the author of children’s books Baby Business and Cooee Mittigar. Open Your Heart to Country is her latest and it is a visual and linguistic feast for the senses.
All of Jasmine Seymour’s books for children feature both Dharug and English language. There are more than 250 Indigenous languages on this continent. The area across which 2ser broadcasts includes the traditional lands of the Dharug people and we actively try to acknowledge and pay respect to the custodians of that land. But I often find myself wondering what it means to acknowledge and pay respect. It’s a great set of words to utter but how can we pay that respect everyday?
Open Your Heart to Country (and all of Jasmine’s books) offer young readers the chance to discover ideas and language of the Dharug people. Many children of preschool age learn aspects of local culture and language in their schools. Warami is a Dharug greeting that children learn as part of their everyday. In Open Your Heart to Country Jasmine Seymour invites readers that “by reading the Dharug words told with their own English translations you will hear this story with Dharug Ears”.
The book is also an explosion of colour and light that is guaranteed to excite young minds to discover things in their local area.Each page brims with a kaleidoscope of animals and landscapes depicting Dharug land.
This is a book to be shared and through sharing, enriching the minds of readers young and old alike. Learning a second language has so many proven benefits, from supporting listening skills, memory and concentration. Second language skills also support problem solving skills and critical thinking. Our brains just kinda grow when we engage with other languages!
But it isn’t just about what it does for us. Sharing Open Your Heart to Country with young readers in your life introduces them to the land they live on. It tells them that it is someone’s land and begins the stories that have been denied in this country. Most importantly though, it is an opportunity to share in these stories and understand Dharug culture. An invitation to practice the acknowledgement and respect and make it a part of their developing lives.
4 min