Welcome Lakota!

Lakota Milera-Weetra

Can you please introduce yourself?

Arru, my name is Lakota, I’m an Arabana (Arabunna) and Narungga woman from the western Kati Thanda region and the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. I have been working with my Amanya (grandmother’s) Arabana language for the last five years, learning the language and making resources.

What inspired you to get involved in language work?

My Amanya was and is my greatest inspiration to be involved in our language work. She along with other Nanas and family have been working on keeping our language alive for many years before me. They like many others were not permitted to speak their language for a long time, so a lot has been lost and many of our mob don’t speak fluently anymore. My Amanya is a great inspiration to me in so many ways, I wanted to continue her work and to make sure that my children would learn and speak Arabana language, and to help make the process of learning language easier for all Arabana people.

What interests you about language work (or why do you think it’s important)?

I think language is so important because it connects to our Ularaka (dreamtime stories), our song, our places. There isn’t always a direct translation to English. I think our language holds so much of our culture and our identity inside of it, I’m not a fluent speaker yet but already I feel much more grounded and confident in my self-identity and my identity as an Arabana woman, language is healing, for our people and for our country. It’s important to keep what our Ancestors fought so hard for alive.

What are your hopes and aspirations for working at Living Languages?

I have spent a lot of my time in the language space working on my own language, so I am excited to contribute in some small way to the work that others are doing for their language, through my role at Living Languages. I am also happy to be a part of the team here and I’m sure they will teach me so much and inspire me in my own language work.

You’ve done a range of different work – is there something you’re most proud of? Or could you share a few highlights?

I am most proud of our on-country language camps & some of the bilingual children’s books that I have made. They have both been really fun to contribute to, it was great to have so many families at the camps, all the kids together and going out to special sites, identifying bush medicine plants, telling stories around the campfire. My favourite children’s book that I made came out of being at the on-country language camp, it’s called ‘Ari Finniss-inga Minhathirnda’ or ‘What we do at Finniss’, I made it from photos I had taken of the young ones on the camp. It’s a simple sentence book, but it’s a great learning resource.