Book Launch: Audrey’s Story

May 7, 2025

In April 2025 the MLT launched Audrey’s Story, a life history of Lower Arrernte woman Audrey Kweyarerte Stewart at the Kaurna Learning Circle. Audrey’s Story is the first book in the Mobile Language Team’s Language and Life History series. The series shares the stories of Aboriginal community Elders with their families, communities and the wider public while exploring the past and creating a record for future generations. The launch was well attended by Audrey’s peers who grew up with her on the pastoral stations in the far north of the state. Audrey’s Story details the deep and strong relationships between her family and the families of the non-Aboriginal pastoralists. This is an important and little known part of South Australia’s history. The book also details the rich linguistic and cultural knowledge of the Lower Arrernte and Wangkangurru people of the far north of the state. Another noteable feature of the book is a Lower Arrernte wordlist that contains many cultural gems.

Language and Life Histories

Language and Life Histories is a series of publications produced by the Mobile Language Team at the University of Adelaide. In response to community requests, the Mobile Language Team travels to communities to make oral history recordings of Elders. These recordings often focus on the intersection of individuals’ lives and the languages they learned in childhood. Exploring the past through memory can lead to long-forgotten words and phrases rising to the surface, making them available for use today. Creating a record now ensures that future generations have an enriched potential for language use and meaning making in their lives. The Mobile Language Team is committed to recording oral histories as a key part of our efforts towards Closing the Gap and as a contribution to the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032.

The Mobile Language Team seeks to archive all oral history recordings made in South Australia’s Aboriginal communities. Some interviews are brief, but these still capture important historical information. In some cases, especially where Elders have led long and interesting lives with a lot of language history, more detailed recording can be made. Some of these recording projects lead to a published book.

The Mobile Language Team is committed to capturing stories from multiple perspectives. We encourage people to tell their stories. We believe that truths often emerge from combining a number of perspectives rather than privileging only one. We take inspiration here from the traditional storytelling practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Stories are built up over time and sometimes contain inconsistent details. These inconsistencies can resolve over time and in the telling. Events can be reinterpreted and memory changes over time. Oral stories and storytelling are processes rather than settled things.

This work presents the views and life history of one senior Aboriginal woman, and we encourage others within the community to share their own perspectives. For support in recording your oral history, contact info@mobilelanguageteam.com.au.