Werte! Emoji nhenhe-areye arrwekele anthurre Australia-kenhe.
Tyerretye Arrernte-areye itnenhe mpwareke, Arrernte-kenhe apmerenge.
Tyerretye anwernekenhe-arle itnenhe-areye mpwareke. Arrernte ilyernpenye-areye
help-eme-ileme angkentye arratye​le arrernetyeke.
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What's up? These are Australia’s first set of Indigenous emojis made on Arrernte land in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. They were made by hundreds of young people with senior Arrernte cultural advisors for you to use!
a world-first
Featuring a sticker set of 90 new Indigenous Australian emojis, the free Indigemoji app is available in both the App Store and Google Play.
Launched in the International Year of Indigenous Languages, it was the number one social networking app in the App Store upon its release and was downloaded 40,000 times in its first week.
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It has a 4.9 star rating in the App Store and 4.5 in Google Play.
decolonising the internet
The 90 emoji designs were designed by at-risk young people at the Alice Springs Public Library. Over seven weeks of workshops, 960 young people participated - drawing, designing, making, experimenting and discussing language. Many had never used an iPad before.
They were mentored by a group of talented Indigenous artists Graham Wilfred Jnr, Phillip McCormack, Emma Stubbs and Colleen Powell, who were in the space all summer thanks to support from inDigiMOB, a digital inclusion partnership between First Nations Media Australia and Telstra.
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cultural innovation
Overseen by a group of Arrernte linguists and elders, each emoji has an Arrernte name, the ancient but endangered language of Mparntwe/Alice Springs
We’ve also developed emojis for special totemic species, either endangered or extinct. A simple emoji of a bilby or a bandicoot promotes their memory, their name, their places in the landscape where they sprang into existence in the Altyerre and where they moved about on their epic journeys. This way they remain in our landscape, a way of preserving and sharing culture.
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