About the Ezy Books Series
Dr. Jodi Edwards, author of Dharawal Colouring and Counting and Dharawal Words, Phrases, and Activities (illustrated by Merindah Funnell), developed this series to support revitalization of the Dharawal language. The series includes 11 primary readers featuring Jodi’s Staffordshire Terrier, Ezy, whom she “teaches” in Dharawal throughout the books.
Each book is written as if Jodi is teaching Ezy both his language and cultural heritage. They incorporate vocabulary from Jodi’s previous works, now expanded into sentences and phrases reflecting Dharawal cultural themes, such as the sea, birds, food gathering, rivers, colors, and directions. By 2025, the series will expand further to cover numbers, the Dharawal alphabet, and camp dogs.
For this project, Jodi collaborated with renowned Aboriginal artist Amy-Lea Trindall Hill, who brings each character to life with a distinctive First Nations perspective.
Each book is bilingual, with sentences in Dharawal followed by English translations. Since exact translations aren’t always possible, readers may encounter minor interpretive challenges, adding depth to the learning experience.
Additionally, Jodi is creating videos where she reads the stories using a dog puppet. These videos will be available at dharawalwords.com.au as soon as they’re completed.
