Indigenous linguist nominated in Australian of the Year Awards

Ms Smith has been developing the Noongar language program in the Western Australian town of Brumby for the last nine years.

She is now a state finalist in the award's 'Australia’s Local Hero 2014' category.

Ms Smith’s language program, which incorporates art and dance, maps out significant cultural stories.

"We've been publishing these stories so in the future the children will have some kind of documentation of each clan and who were their elders at that time of documenting the stories," Ms Smith said.

She said the nomination was an honour and bought much-needed attention to the study of linguistics.

"You look at sports and health – they’re always on top of us. And when someone asks, 'what’s your title, your role?' and I say, 'I'm a linguist' – they don’t know what that is."

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