Gildipasi Language Project: Tumbuna Stories and Tumbuna Knowledge

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.

This project documents the linguistic practices of the Gildapasi community in Madang province, Papua New Guinea. There are four languages indigenous to Gildipasi, all of which are poorly documented and endangered. Through recordings of narratives, interviews, group dialogues, and bush walks, we document two realms of knowledge important to Gildipasi community members: tumbuna stories, traditional stories connecting language communities to the landscape, and tumbuna knowledge, the knowledge of traditional practices for living off the land, such as traditional medicine, canoe-building, and hunting practices. Primary investigator: Andrew Pick

Project Details


Location: Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, Oceania Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Hawaii at Manoa Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £4,777.00 Commencement Date: 01/2014 Project Status: Active
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