Many of the trainees in the 2012 program star in the book simply titled WAM: Canoes of the Marshall Islands, which was published thanks to the Unbound Bookmaker Project, coordinated by Jamie Zvirzdin. Under this project many Marshallese non-profit organizations were sponsored to create and publish books.
According to the Unbound Bookmaker site the project aims to provide an authorship experience for children in the Marshall Islands to write, illustrate, and publish their own stories, in both Marshallese and English.
“Our aims for this project were to promote literacy, creativity, andc onfidence, with the additional benefit of teaching important life skills, imparting knowledge on environmental issues, and preserving local culture,” Jamie said. “About 300 students in the Marshall Islands have participated in creating 15 class books. Each has received a copy as part of the project, and each library has a set of the books.”
To hear more about the project, you can listen to Jamie Zvirzdin, creator of the project, in an interview with ABC Radio Australia.
To see more about the book or to buy a copy, go to the amazon store.