Milpati Baker

Anangu Education Worker

Hello my name is Milpati Barbara Baker and I am from Yalata, on the south coast of South Australia. I now live at Kanpi Community and I work as an AEW (Anangu Education Worker) at Murputja Education Centre. I have four sons, their names are Jason, Jamie, Andrew and Fabian.

In 1986 I used to work at Mimili School, Fabian was still a little baby. In the school holidays we came to visit Kanpi and my name was put forward to start teaching at Kanpi School. I was the first AEW to work there and there was also one teacher.

We taught the kids in a shed first and then in a caravan. There were so many, some of them had to learn outside. That's why everyone in the community was talking about getting the big school built at Murputja. There were so many kids and not enough room to teach them. Everytime, the teacher was coming from Amata, everyday. There was no house for the teacher to stay in.

In 1990, we took all the kids from Kanpi for a trip to Adelaide. My husband Anton took the boys on the train and the teacher and I took the girls in the troopie. We had a great time. We went to the Christmas Pageant and went to see some racing cars.

At Murputja School I work with the senior class. I enjoy listening to the children reading and I am happy to help with the drawing and painting class. I also teach Pitjantjatjara language classes. I am studying AnTEP (Anangu Tertiary Education Program) at Ernabella. Some times we go for workshops there which last for a week. I like studying at AnTEP, learning English and Spelling.

Sometimes at Murputja School we go for bush trips for maku or tjala and punu. Some kids come from Port Elliot (non-Aboriginal kids) and we take them out bush too, and teach them. We have a cultural exchange program with Port Elliot school.