IBT has published an animated video of the story of the prophet Jonah in the Chukchi language.

The book of Jonah tells the story of a prophet who resists his divine calling. According to Maria Shemanova, the IBT staff member who crafted the video, “The Jonah narrative is on one hand the story of a prophet who learns to accept God’s will, and on the other hand, it tells us about God’s mercy towards sinful human beings. In its brilliant simplicity, the story touches readers’ hearts in a powerful way.”

The video’s visual component comes from artwork produced by Irina Pavlishina for the 2018 illustrated Chukchi edition of this Old Testament book. The video allows viewers to read the Chukchi translation in streaming captions while listening to an audio recording by mother-tongue Chukchi speaker Dina Talpygyrgina, who was the philological editor of this translation. Studies show that captions are an effective tool for promoting mother-tongue literacy in primarily oral cultures such as that of the Chukchi.

IBT plans to adapt the Jonah video into other languages as well. Work is currently in progress on the Kabardian version.