My name is Angelina Joshua, and I’m a Warndarrang woman. I come from a small community called Ngukurr, in East Arnhem Land, set on a big rocky hill on the banks of the Roper River which runs out to meet the Gulf of Carpentaria.



My favourite time of the day is the afternoon, when the sun is hiding and it is cooler. It’s a good time to go for a walk and enjoy the afternoon. It makes me feel good and makes my body strong.

When you’re walking through Ngukurr you can hear kids laughing, people talking and the wanggarnangin (black crow). You can smell the cool breeze coming up from the river through the trees. All of the things that are in your head disappear.

When I was a little girl I used to play with my cousins. We played games of marbles and would sit at home talking and colouring in. But the best thing from my childhood was Sunday School. We would listen to the priest tell stories about Jesus, how he hunted, fished, how he walked.

The priest was a powerful man, preaching and telling stories. These stories were told in Kriol.

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My first language is Kriol – a new language that we speak in the community. English is my second language and Marra, my abuji’s (my father’s mother) language is my third.

Thirteen years ago, I went away to boarding school in Darwin for Years 11 and 12. One afternoon in the sunset, I was walking around school with some friends. One girl asked me, “What languages do you have in Ngukurr?” And I answered, “Seven”.

One of them then asked if I spoke any of them. I was too embarrassed to answer her question. I didn’t understand or speak any of the languages from my home. It made me angry and ashamed. I was also upset with my father because he chose to send me to a school to learn English, instead of my own language.

I listened to Marra spoken almost everyday of my life. I started listening to it when I was a kid, around eight years old. As a child growing up, I didn’t speak Marra and I only understood a little. When my abuji said: “marluy jaja nana guwarda” (you’ve no ears, you don’t listen), we always knew what she meant. I only started to speak and understand Marra when I started working at the Ngukurr Language Centre.

Before this, I volunteered with the Language Centre. It was my job to help record the old people – setting up the microphones, making sure the recorder was on. This is how I started to learn Marra.

Through this voluntary work, a linguist at the centre discovered that I was interested in language. One day he came knocking on my door and told me that the language centre was looking for a young part-time worker, and that he wanted to train me up for the job. I’ve now been working there for about two and a half years.

At the Language Centre, I learn Marra from my eldest cousin who is a partial Marra speaker; he is my teacher. We teach languages and record fluent language speakers – we’re trying to keep our languages strong.

Now I get to speak Marra everyday, but the most important activity for me is recording the old people. It’s important because they speak Marra fluently and clearly – it makes me want to learn more so that I can teach it to the next generation.

Like lots of language centres in Australia, we try to use technology in new ways to help us document and teach language. Recently, we went to an app development workshop for language documentation at Charles Darwin University, sponsored by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, where I worked with app developers and linguists to build a language lesson and teaching app.

On top of that, at the Language Centre we get ongoing training in using recording devices and transcription software to document languages for the community. But there aren’t many old people left who speak Marra – only three fluent speakers and a few partial speakers, so we don’t get to record as much as I would like.

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This is my inspiration to be a language worker and a teacher. I want to continue teaching to keep our languages strong, so the knowledge of Marra can spread, and keep spreading. I teach Marra to kids from the Early Learning Centre right up to Grade 6.

At Ngukurr Language Centre, we believe that advocacy, sharing, and spreading knowledge is an important part of language preservation and revitalisation. This is one of the reasons I decided to be a part of My Grandmother’s Lingo, where I collaborated with SBS and two other young Indigenous Australians to make an animation which helps spread knowledge of Marra.

I’m very proud of my job and the work that I do. I now don’t need to feel any shame because I speak my three languages: Kriol, English, and Marra.

“Our stories, our way” – each week, a new guest hosts the @IndigenousX Twitter account to discuss topics of interest to them as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. Produced with assistance of Guardian Australia staff.