She will travel to Adelaide with her family to accept her award.

Penong-born Smart grew up at Yalata with her parents.

She finished school at 16 and tried a number of different jobs around Yalata before deciding to become an aboriginal education worker at Yalata Anungu School in 1978.

She was involved in the Families SA program ‘Save the Children,’ the petrol sniffing control program and Centerlink.

She has been involved in the community council since she was 19 years old and remembers learning about leadership from her elders with three other young councillors.

She is still actively involved with Yalata’s youth programs, the Lutheran church and the women’s group.

She also assists government agencies to locate people and interprets for people who need assistance to understand English.

She has a strong relation ship with the police in Yalata and is a chairperson on the Yalata Aboriginal Community Council, a previous member of the Maralinga Tjarutja Council and a board member of the Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resource Management Board.

She says people at Yalata have experienced a lot of sorrow over the years, but things are improving.

“A long time ago it was really rough, we struggeled through these years,” she said.

“But the community really put their foot down about what it should be and what should happen.”

Mima is also an indigenous artist who learnt how to carve artefacts from her parents.

She carves shields and didgeridoos with lizards, goannas and snakes.

She says there are only three or four old ladies left who make artefacts, but a lot of young mothers paint on canvas.

Mima’s passion is passing on knowledge to young people, and she enjoys taking the kids from Yalata to youth camp during the Christmas holidays and to Tunarama in Port Lincoln.

Youth camp is an opportunity to take the kids fishing and hunting and teach them about their culture and bush medicine.

“The thing I like doing most when the holidays come is going camping with the kids,” she said.

“It’s joyful to work for the children and the children are happy to be back at school after camp.”

Mima hopes that her award will encourage other Yalata people to work hard for their community and follow in her footsteps.

“I want to see the community go forward as a happy, healthy, safe community for old and young,” she said.

“It’s a big thing for the community for me to win this award and I hope that someone like me can be presented with something for the community.”

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