Woonyoomboo the Night Heron is an enhanced eBook published by Sharing Stories Foundation. It features a Dreaming story shared by Nyikina Mangala elders Annie Nayina Milgin and Darraga Watson, that has been passed down from Annie’s father Darby Nangkiriny (Sharing Stories Foundation, 2022b). The eBook is freely available for download from Apple Books, and there are two versions: one in English and the other in Nyikina language (Milgin & Watson, 2018). The enhanced eBook was created in partnership with the students of Nyikina Mangala Community School and other community members.
Dreaming stories, like Woonyoomboo’s, explain the spiritual world and the creation of the physical world, and are the foundation of Aboriginal lore, culture, and beliefs (Aboriginal Contemporary, 2022; Deadly Story, 2022a). Woonyoomboo is the main creation ancestor of the Nyikina people, the traditional custodians of the Kimberley region in Western Australia (Sharing Stories Foundation, 2022a). Storytelling is an ancient practice which enables knowledge transfer and relationship-building in Indigenous cultures (Iseke, 2013).
Woonyoomboo the Night Heron can be classified as an enhanced or ‘amplified’ eBook because it contains supplementary media such as maps, navigational features, illustrations, audio-visual content, and links to resources outside of the text such as community member stories (Allan, 2017; James & de Kock, 2013; Serafini et al., 2015). The text benefits from the emerging influence of drone technology, incorporating aerial photography and video footage of vast landscapes which reveal the physical geography of creation stories.
The eBook’s narrative tracks the Songline that Woonyoomboo left for the Nyikina people, which holds instructions for how to live and how to care for Country (Milgin & Watson, 2018; Sharing Stories Foundation, 2022b). Songlines are physical paths, often tied with ancestral stories, that link sacred sites and are a “singing celebration of Country” (Deadly Story, 2022b). The Songline in Woonyoomboo the Night Heron is used to guide the narrative and is depicted as an illustrated, interactive map with sacred landmarks along the way.
Evaluative criteria
| Criterion Description | Evaluation notes | |
| 1 | The text is appropriately presented in digital format | The enhanced audiobook features multimodal elements, such as audio narration and videos. This is appropriate for this Dreaming story as oral traditions are a key feature of Aboriginal culture. The spoken word has been the primary means of passing on stories between generations for millennia (Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority, 2018).
The eBook has community approval and is culturally safe (Sharing Stories Foundation, 2022a). For example, it features a warning at the start about images and references to people have died (Milgin & Watson, 2018). |
| 2 | The text takes advantage of features the digital world allows, beyond what is possible in print | Multimodal, digital features serve to deepen reader understanding of Woonyoomboo’s story (Dobler, 2013). In addition to the illustrations on each page, there are embedded animated videos which incorporate original artwork by Nyikina Mangala Community School students and rich soundscapes, which bring moments of the story to life. Some students also act in the videos!
The Songline map can be viewed while reading the text, by touching the map icon at the bottom-left of each page. This shows not only the illustrated map, but incredible drone photography highlighting aerial views of the physical landscape. On some pages there is a clapsticks symbol. Readers can touch the icon to hear someone performing a song with clapsticks. It is powerful to read so experientially; to see the land geography, interact with the illustrated map, and hear recorded songs which are tethered to this creation narrative. |
| 3 | Supplementary features align with the text | At the end of the story there is section titled ‘Our Community Voices’ which features links to audio clips, video files and written text about locals. |
| 4 | Interactive features maintain the integrity of the main story | There is “aesthetic synergy” between the digital design, the text itself and the culturally significant Dreaming story captured within (Walsh, 2013, p. 187). Digital elements, such as the animated videos, illustrate parts of Woonyoomboo’s story, such as when he uses a majala bark to collect fish in the water that later becomes the Fitzroy River (Milgin & Watson, 2018).
These elements are instrumental to the reading experience and are inherently purposeful as they support narrative comprehension (Lamb, 2011). |
| 5 | Digital features support readers’ acquisition of words or comprehension | There is an explanation of icons and symbols that appear in the story on page 9. For example, there are two audio narration buttons: ‘ENG’ is for English and ‘NYK’ is for Nyikina language. These options support bilingual language learning.
Readers can touch any word that is in dark red to hear the pronunciation aloud, which is helpful for language learning and bilingual word recognition (Lamb, 2011; Yokota & Teale, 2014). English subtitles are included for videos which feature Nyikina language, such as the welcome video by Annie at the start of the eBook. Unfortunately, there is no text highlighting (Segal-Drori et al., 2010). It would also be helpful to have a glossary of terms at the end of the text, with definitions or even opportunities to match illustrations with vocabulary (Yokota & Teale, 2014). |
| 6 | The story within the digital text has literary merit | This is an ancient Dreaming story, that has been passed down orally through generations of Nyikina families. It is an extraordinary gift that this story has been shared with the public, through the generosity of Nyikina community elders. |
Reference List:
Aboriginal Contemporary. (2022). What is the dreamtime and dreaming? https://www.aboriginalcontemporary.com.au/pages/what-is-the-dreamtime-and-dreaming
Deadly Story. (2022a). Dreaming. https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Dreaming
Deadly Story. (2022b). Songlines. https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Songlines
Iseke, J. (2013). Indigenous storytelling as research. International Review of Qualitative Research, 6(4), 559-577. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2013.6.4.559
James, R., & de Kock, L. (2013). The digital David and the Gutenberg Goliath: The rise of the enhanced e-book. English Academy Review: Southern African Journal of English Studies, 30(1), 107-123.
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12-17.
Milgin, A. N., & Watson, D. (2018). Woonyoomboo: The Night Heron. Sharing Stories Foundation. https://books.sharingstoriesfoundation.org/nyikina/
Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority. (2018, July 25). Storytelling in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/about/k-12-policies/aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-perspectives/resources/storytelling
Segal-Drori, O., Korat, O., Shamir, A., & Klein, P. (2010). Reading electronic and printed books with and without adult instruction: effects on emergent reading. Read Writ 23(8), 913-930.
Serafini, F., Kachorsky, D., & Aguilera, E. (2015). Picture books 2.0: Transmedial features across narrative platforms. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(2), 16-24.
Sharing Stories Foundation. (2022a). Nyikina community. https://sharingstoriesfoundation.org/
community/nyikina/
Sharing Stories Foundation. (2022b). Woonyoomboo: the night heron. https://sharingstories
foundation.org/resource/woonyoomboo-the-night-heron/
Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment. In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers (pp. 181-194). Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
Yokota, J., & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: educators making informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 34(6), 577-585.
Header Image Source: Figure 1. Screenshot from the eBook (Milgin & Watson, 2018).
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