I am a member of one of the eight tribes of Mer, a tribe whose identity is inseparable from the sea. My grandparents and parents were seafarers. For the Meriam People, the sea is not merely a navigational route — it is the source of life, sustenance, and the living voice of Maiso Mir, the murmur of the Great Barrier Reef heard from our shores.

 

As a retired Language and Culture Community Teacher, I have dedicated my professional life to ensuring that Meriam Mir — the only Papuan language on Australian territory — is spoken, taught, and transmitted to the next generation. I am presently deepening this commitment through the Master of Indigenous Language Education (MILE) program at the University of Sydney, bringing the most current language reclamation scholarship directly into the service of my community.

 

I founded Maiso Meriam Mir Ltd to lead what I believe is one of the most urgent cultural missions in Australia: the reclamation and revitalisation of Meriam Mir before the last fluent voices are lost to silence. Every word we restore is an act of sovereignty. Every child who learns Meriam Mir carries forward 60,000 years of connection to land, sea, and sky.

 

My commitment to language is also a commitment to Sea Country. Meriam Mir encodes generations of ecological knowledge — the names of currents, reef species, tides, and seasons that western science is only now beginning to understand. To reclaim our language is to reclaim our stewardship of the Maiso.