Friday afternoon is show prep time at a tiny radio station that broadcasts in more languages than most people speak in a lifetime.

From a studio tucked away in Darwin's industrial backstreets, Sylvia Nulpinditj has finalised the week's program of Dhäwu Dhäwu — "story story" or "storytime" in Yolngu Matha.

The episode tackles the issue of social problems in remote schools — a big, broad issue, she says.

Also on the broadcaster's mind is the looming federal election: there are names and policies to learn, interviews to conduct and megabytes of audio to break down and carefully translate.

"The candidates, the politicians, they also have to take into consideration that when they're interviewed by someone like me, they have to understand and see that they have to give me time," she said.

Sylvia Nulpinditj is the trusted voice of the north-east Arnhem airwaves. ( ABC Radio Darwin: Jesse Thompson )

The task demonstrates the challenges of her role as an Indigenous broadcaster carrying messages between balanda (non-Indigenous) bureaucracies and some of the most remote Australians.

Counting the dialects she understands on her fingers, Ms Nulpinditj reaches six — English comes in about seventh.

"That's very hard because I have to really concentrate and read and get non-Yolngu staff to help me with trying to make it understandable," she said.

"That's important because it's also about awareness. We have to tell them the right message."

Building trust on the airwaves

Yolŋu Radio is a tiny radio station with a big footprint.

By the numbers it is a logistical headache: it broadcasts to six major north-east Arnhem Land communities, about 15 nearby homelands and a total of 22 transmission sites.

"Depending on who you talk to, there's up to about 26 different Yolngu languages," said Andrew Grimes, content director and producer, from the station's Nhulunbuy studio.

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Of those, the station regularly broadcasts in about eight languages.

Reports from the bush telegraph have told Mr Grimes that locals appreciated the opportunity to listen to radio in their native tongue.

It's been a long-standing question of building trust on the airwaves.

As Cyclone Trevor barrelled across Far North Queensland and towards the other side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, for example, his team were already working the phones, peeling warnings off the printer and preparing to bunker down for days.

"Morning to night, working shifts, doing what we needed to do," Mr Grimes said.

He believes the station is the only source of in-language updates, but even that is the result of a translation process that can take up to an hour.

It's a similar story with other broadcasts — health advice, legal messaging — that raise questions of where the information needs to go, who will speak it so it flows, if a linguist should be brought in, etcetera.

"A big thing is using Yolngu place names, because a lot of the place names used on the cyclone tracking maps mean very little for people out here," Mr Grimes said.

"We also have to take into account that many places have many names, and if someone has passed away who shares a particular name with a particular place, then we have to use the alternative name."

Ms Nulpinditj prepares Dhäwu Dhäwu, a mix of interviews and pre-recorded radio segments. ( ABC Radio Darwin: Jesse Thompson )

The solution to these obstacles has been to do a lot with a little.

Although its presenters are paid employees of parent production company ARDS Aboriginal Corporation, Mr Grimes said it could always do with more government funding for full-time staff.

"I think the general feeling is that we're punching above our weight, and there's a lot of very strong support for the work that goes on here."

Turning young ears

Ms Nulpinditj's big radio break was a six-part play; she was staying at an urban Indigenous community in Darwin when a friend recruited her to the part.

She took to the airwaves like a natural.

Ms Nulpinditj also does an annual outside broadcast at the Garma Festival. ( Supplied: Yolngu Radio )

That was about eight years ago, and since then she's collected a CBAA Community Radio Award for her talk show, which delves into issues such as petrol sniffing, first aid in the bush and why there are sometimes 29 days in February.

Each is the result of careful consideration about important topics within the Yolngu audience, and it is obvious that Ms Nulpinditj handles her role with great responsibility.

"That's important because that's where it all starts — you have to build a foundation and relationship with a community and people. You can't just go out there."

She's keen to leverage that as a way to strengthen language and culture among children who spend a lot of time scrolling on their phones.

"My main concern is to try to hook on young people and give them the chance and opportunity that they've never, ever in their entire life as part of school education, didn't have that opportunity to learn about," she said.

"It's a good way of re-educating people: young people, older people, in between, so they can build up on that knowledge.

"If they're just sitting there, doing nothing, and they turn on the radio and they can listen to something interesting, it'll be making their day."