Exploring the Translation Process of Bruce Pascoe's Young Dark Emu into Italian: Choices, Reflections and Learnings

This article is based on a translation of Young Dark Emu: A Truer History (YDE) into Italian –L’Oscuro Emù per Ragazzi: una storia più vera(L’OEPR) and a theoretical exegesis, which were part of the first author’s Master of Translation Studies dissertation, completed at The University of Western Australia in 2023 under the supervision of the second author. Bruce Pascoe’s YDE is the version of Dark Emu(DE) for young people aged 7 to 12 years in which he advocates for a reconsideration of the label given to pre-colonial Indigenous Australians. Both books won several prizes and contributed to rethinking Indigenous life in Australia and changing Australian identity. Indigenous Australian literature’s well-defined political identity always demands ethical awareness in translation. In the case of YDE the original’s culture-sensitive counter-memory and the fact that the book is written for children contribute to making it a particularly challenging book to translate into another language. Translating YDE for Italian children, became an exploration of strategies and choices in relation to the ethical positioning of the authors of this article. Source-oriented translation strategies suit this type of text especially when dealing with culture-specific elements and the title. A priori standards were met by navigating a theoretical framework interwoven to assist the process. An action research design guided action and reflection, leaning broadly but not exclusively on contributions to Translation Studies of Reiss, Toury, Eco, Venuti and Osimo. This article discusses choices, rationale behind solutions, insights, consistency with ideology and ethical positioning.