Celebrating 25 years of Aboriginal Interpreter Service
Since its foundation, the Aboriginal Interpreter Service (AIS) has played a vital role in ensuring that Aboriginal Language speakers can exercise their fundamental human right to communicate in their first language.
Next week, on 10 April 2025, AIS will be hosting a special celebratory event to commemorate 25 years of operation. The proceedings will take place in Mparntwe/Alice Springs and will recognise the tangible difference AIS has made to improving the lives of Aboriginal people.
The celebration will also provide an important opportunity to honour interpreters, like Miriam Ngalmirinmirin, who have given years of dedicated service to AIS.
Originally from Goulburn Islands, off the coast of Arnhem Land, Miriam, or Mim, has worked for AIS for 12 years and speaks Maung and Kunwinjku. She is excited about the AIS 25th anniversary event because it offers a rare opportunity to get together with other interpreters who have worked with AIS
over the years.
‘I love to see the other interpreters, they work for 20 years or 25 years, longer than me.’
She likes working for AIS because it ‘helps my mob, my people to send a message straight.’
Linguist, lawyer and CEO of ARDS Aboriginal Corporation, Ben Grimes, also has a long history with AIS – first as a criminal lawyer and then, in 2012, when he joined the AIS team, initially as the Legal Interpreting Coordinator.
Over his many years of working with interpreters, what has really stayed with Ben is the ‘courage and bravery’ of interpreters.
‘It takes a lot of courage to be an interpreter and to step into … a courtroom or an operating theatre … But that’s the type of courage that it takes to work together to make the NT a better place.’
Over the years, Ben has seen a shift in the levels of respect and recognition given to Aboriginal languages in the NT, and he credits Aboriginal Interpreters as being instrumental in bringing about this change.
‘Aboriginal Interpreters have helped to change perceptions across government, across society, about how just how valuable and important Aboriginal languages are.’
So here’s to another 25 years of helping communities and of shaping the Northern Territory!
Get involved
If you’re a language speaker and are interested in becoming part of the next 25 years of AIS, visit the AIS website.
Got a memory or story about AIS to share? Email drp.communityengagement@nt.gov.au Stories and memories may be shared on the Department of Housing, Local Government and Community Development social media channels.
