A LONGSTANDING shortage of iTaukei reading material is leaving children with too few books in their own language, prompting writers, educators and illustrators to work together to close the gap.
The three-day inaugural Talanoa Booklab workshop at the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Development conference centre in Nadave, Tailevu, this week focused on developing and finalising iTaukei short stories for Years 7 and 8 students.
University of the South Pacific linguistics and Fijian studies lecturer Apolonia Tamata said the lack of resources had persisted for years, with few iTaukei books available for children, particularly short stories and poetry.
“The gap in iTaukei literacy hasn’t been met and has been an issue over the years,” she said.
Ms Tamata said the shortage also threatened the preservation of iTaukei stories, many of which had traditionally been passed down orally without being documented.
The project, in partnership with the Ministry of Education’s curriculum advisory services, aims to develop fiction, non-fiction and other iTaukei stories for the national curriculum.
Ms Tamata said this was the first time iTaukei writers had come together to develop curriculum-based short stories.
Writers and editors are working through talanoa sessions to refine the material, with Ms Tamata and her team ensuring the stories meet linguistic and educational standards.
She said the project was about more than producing textbooks — it was about ensuring iTaukei children could see their language, culture and stories reflected in what they read.
“We hope that every iTaukei child out there knows that they have iTaukei books published for them,” she said.
