At Ngukurr School, the Meigim Kriol Strongbala program has been regularly visiting a class made up of a boisterous and adorable bunch of 7 and 8 year olds. Part of their weekly Kriol lesson is to sing songs in Kriol. Last term the students were learning different nursery rhymes in English and their teacher thought it’d be great to translate some of them into Kriol too. We drafted a translation before class but during our lessons we encouraged and guided the students to come up with the translation themselves. The Kriol version of ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ we all came up with was a smash hit:

Ba ba blek ship
Yu garrim eni wul?
Yuwai, yuwai, thribala beig ful
Wanbala bla det olmen
Wanbala bla det olgamen
Wanbala bla det lilboi hu jidan langa kemp

The song could be heard all over the community once the kids had learned it!

This term, the class is learning about feelings and well-being, so the teacher had another great idea of translating ‘If You’re Happy And You Know It’ into Kriol:

Wen yu gudbinji en yu sabi, klep yu bingga
Wen yu gudbinji en yu sabi, klep yu bingga
Wen yu gudbinji en yu sabi, yu garra shoum brabliwei
Wen yu gudbinji en yu sabi, klep yu bingga

The kids are still learning this one and we will add more verses, but we are all having a ton of fun.

If you are working with Kriol speaking kids, feel free to use these songs too, or share with us any that you have been singing. Thanks to Carol Robertson from Meigim Kriol Strongbala for helping to devise the songs and the Heather Carter at Ngukurr School for the great ideas and support.