April Mills-Thom is a Masters of Linguistics student at the University of New England. She is doing a work placement at Muurrbay and is learning about life at a busy regional language centre. In particular April is working with Dallas Walker and others who are preparing the Gumbaynggirr Toolbox database for upload to the FirstVoices project, which will see the Gumbaynggirr dictionary go online with pictures and sound. She will also help with recording language for this project. April writes:

“This work placement has been an amazing experience, a fantastic introduction to language revitalisation in practice, and has really opened my eyes to a lot of aspects of it that I hadn’t even thought of. I’m overwhelmed by how welcoming and friendly everyone has been and the calibre of work they’re doing across so many areas. Language revitalisation is an interest of mine, and I wanted to include something important with real-world applications in my degree. I previously felt a bit uninspired and unsure of where all this study was leading, but after my short time here this is an area I’d definitely like to pursue. Thanks so much for having me!”

If you are interested in work experience with us, please contact Anna Ash on MRALC@westnet.com.au.