News & Links
New! We’ve started a new Project Uepeker group on Facebook. Come take at look at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23719618117&ref=mf and consider joining us.
New! We’ve started a new Project Uepeker community on orkut for those who use gmail. Come take a look at: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=50246324
Article in New York Times. Question is, what happens now?
Project U-e-peker Update:
Our Japanese language version of “The Owl and the Message,” which was submitted to the Ainu Foundation’s 2007 Ainu Picture Books for Children Contest, won an award equivalent to third place! “The Owl and the Message” is our retold version of “The Owl’s Song: Konkuwa” from Chiri Yukie’s yukar collection. We continue to seek funding to get the English language version of this book published for readers of English.
Recommended Reading
World Literature Today has a special issue on the theme of endangered languages which is accessible on the internet. It contains a section on Ainu folktales. Access “Two Ainu Folktales,” or go to http://www.ou.edu/worldlit/ and click back issues to find the September 2007 issue. Go to the article “Two Ainu Folktales,” Deborah Davidson’s renditions of two yukar from Chiri Yukie’s anthology, accompanied by striking illustrations by Stephanie Gagnepain and Sarah Davidson.
Article on Kjeld.com, a web-based news site, describes how Project U-e-peker was first born. http://www.ikjeld.com/japannews/00000457.php
Chiri Yukie (1903-1922), a profile of the young Ainu girl who first transcribed and translated the yukar that became the Ainu Shinyôshû (The collected Ainu epics of the gods).
Other Hokkaido-related sites
Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, Hokkaido
An Overview of Hokkaido from Wikipedia
Welcome to the World of Miura Ayako introduces the person and works of best-selling Hokkaido-based author.
