Mildred Napaljarri Spencer

Lajamanu, NT

Senior Community Researcher, Central Land Council

Experience as a researcher

In early 2024 I was interviewed by big sister Glenda Wayne and Raelene Jingili from the Lajamanu Good Life team about my opinion of the Good Life Project. This experience of being interviewed got me interested to become a researcher. At the same time I joined Walrpiri Education and Training Trust’s YWPP team workshop at Lajamanu, learning about how to do interviews with community people. The workshop was new for me and it got me out of the house and doing things. After the workshop the YWPP team asked me to help them with the interviews. And I felt that I could help them and I wanted to help them.

The YWPP team came again in early 2025 to Lajamanu and they told me they were doing another workshop at Lajamanu and Nyirripi. They invited me to go to Yuendumu to do more YWPP interviews.

As a researcher I’m finding that I’m developing and strengthening my skills, which gives me more confidence to speak in front of an audience like I did at the AIATSIS Conference in Darwin, June 2025. Holding the microphone I thought about my role models, my mother and my big sister, and I felt confident. And tears came to my eyes. Now I feel that I can go to a conference and hold the microphone. I’ve got over being afraid and shamed of standing up. This is what we’re going to be doing in the future, standing up and being brave.

My skills as a researcher

I’m a professionally trained interpreter, mainly in the court and hospital. I speak and write in English and in Warlpiri. I find that this research work is a bit similar to my interpreter work and I like both these jobs. They have given me more experience and confidence. This casual research job gives me more knowledge and is teaching me more. It’s a suitable job for me.

When I’m on the phone interpreting I’m so proud of doing what I am and when I’m doing my research job I’m proud of the WETT program, which was started by my mother, the president of the WETT team. She is my role model. It’s really wonderful that we’re sharing our research with those four Warlpiri communities. Also WETT has a partnership with La Trobe University and we share our research with them about the stories Yapa tell us in community.

This work helps me feel more confident to talk at workshops and presenting at the AIATSIS Conference was such a good opportunity. I’m building more confidence in myself and not holding any shame as a Yapa.

My employment experience

Both my big sister Glenda Wayne and my mother Barbara Martin have been good role models. After schooling in Yuendumu I went to boarding school at Kormilda College, Darwin. But it made me homesick and I returned to finish Year 11 and 12 at the Yuendumu Open Education Centre. When I was 19-years old I started working at Bilingual Resource Development Unit (BRDU) Language Centre Yuendumu, doing transcribing and translation. I’ve seen my mother, who grew me up, as a teachers there and also my big sister was working as an interpreter. I got inspired at BRDU to do their linguistic training as an interpreter, which I did in 1998, before I had my kids. I also studied at Batchelor Institute’s The Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics (CALL). I completed an interpreter course in Katherine, which taught us about how to speak English in the language of the court and the hospital. I worked for about 2 years as an interpreter in Katherine. I’ve got a skill and I’ve got to use it. I can’t just do that education for nothing.

Why research is important to me…

I was inspired to become involved in research as I’d seen my big sister Glenda Wayne working as a Warlpiri community researcher. My younger brother had helped Glenda with the interviews when she came to Lajamanu. I know that Yapa can do this research job because they have both Warlpiri and English skills. I feel proud of YWPP and that we have Yapa researchers.

I really wanted to do this research job to find out about our four Warlpiri communities, about what’s happening in my community and in our other Warlpiri communities. I want to look at how we can change community life and struggles. I feel proud that I can help my communities, especially those people who can’t understand English much. I’m working both ways. I can let them know the interview questions and then pass on their message. I’m curious to help people in the communities to find out more. That’s one of the reasons that I like this job.

I’m really proud of our little group of researchers going anywhere to talk about the community and the YWPP work. We got to show them who we are. Also I still want to support my family through working proudly as both an interpreter and a researcher. Being a Yapa researcher is a good opportunity for now and in the future.

My availability to work as a researcher

I am available for research projects in Lajamanu or any other Warlpiri communities if a researcher is needed.