iPhones, Not Textbooks: WA’s Nyiyaparli Kids Help Preserve Critically Endangered Aboriginal Language with New Smartphone Game

Innovative smartphone game teaching and reviving the Nyiyaparli language — one of the world’s most critically endangered, with only 8 fluent speakers left. It flips the tech debate on its head: instead of pulling kids away from screens, it uses screens to save language and culture. TheNyiyaparli Widi(‘widi’ means game in Nyiyaparli) game transforms phones from a distraction into tools of cultural survival. The game is co-designed with the Nyiyaparli community and features voices of Elders, parents, and kids.

The Nyiyaparli people are the Traditional Owners of over 36,000 square kilometres of land and waters in the east Pilbara region of Western Australia.