Being able to stand on Wiradjuri country and speak her ancestral language is a privilege for Dhani Gilbert.
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But being able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her father and aunt while doing so fills the 19-year-old Charles Sturt University student with enormous pride.
"I get to study with my dad and aunty, they're my family and I adore spending time with them, but it's also about learning so we can revitalise our language within our family and with our community," Ms Gilbert said.
Earlier in January, Ms Gilbert travelled to Wagga from Canberra to take part in an immersive language and culture course taught in the open-air around Wagga Beach.
It was once of several residential classes in the course that takes Ms Gilbert and her fellow students back to the land.
"A big part of it is about using language and revising the use of the language," said the Lachlan River Wiradjuri woman.
"It's incredible to be able to spend time on country. We spent the time at Wagga Beach, by the river, and that's amazing because it's a connection to country but it's also a connection to our old people."
Wiradjuri language and culture have always been a part of Ms Gilbert's life. But, she said, she is completing the course at CSU in order to build conversation skills beyond "just words without fluency".
"I am lucky, I use the language every day in some ways, whether it's while talking to my brothers and sisters or my dad with their Wiradjuri names, or if it's while having some baseline conversation," Ms Gilbert said.
"I've always lived around animals, and I'm lucky that when I talk about animals I talk about them with my Wiradjuri brain switched on, I use the words."
Some of the residential lessons in Ms Gilbert's course have had to be changed due to the pandemic.
Although 45 students were able to attend the Wagga school in person last month, 20 participants were forced to study remotely due to the travel restrictions.
Not being able to stand on land made the experience hard.
"COVID, unfortunately, meant we couldn't have everyone together, so we had to connect in different ways," Ms Gilbert said.
"The most unfortunate thing about it is that we can't sing. Some learn better through singing, some through speaking. It uses different parts of the brain. In the first residential, we sang a lot but this time we couldn't do that."
The two-year graduate certificate in Wiradjuri language and culture is just one of the qualifications Ms Gilbert is currently working toward.
She will complete the CSU qualification this year, while in 2023, she will graduate from the Australian National University with a double bachelor in science and sustainability.