Letter from Wailtyi - Voice by Jaylon Newchurch

The Kaurna Children’s Letters are three manuscript items written in the Kaurna language in the early 1840s in South Australia. They were written in beautiful copperplate script by Kaurna children, who attended the first school for Aboriginal children in Australia to be taught in their mother tongue we now call Kaurna. This school was established in December 1839 by German Lutheran missionaries and Kaurna Elders at Piltawodli Pirltawardli, on the banks of Karrawirra Pari and what we now call the River Torrens.

This letter by Wailtyi, a boy aged 12 years, is spoken by Jaylon Newchurch.

The English translation is:

“To my friends, I have sent you a letter. Would you please send me toys. I will play with them for a long time. I will play with my household things that you send here. Please send some more.”