Genevieve was at Nguiu for three months at the start of 2010, working with the senior songmen and women to listen through the old recordings to work out who was singing and write down as much of the old language as possible. Only a few people are left who know the old language of these old songs so it is important to write the text down and create translations into Modern Tiwi and English so that the stories and meanings are not lost.
Due to the poor quality of some of the recordings (made on wax cylinders in 1912 and 1928 and reel to reel tape in the 1950s and 1960s), it was difficult to make out all the words – especially in the 1912 and 1928 recordings. Even so, the elders have been able to distinguish enough text to give social, historical and ceremonial context to the songs and by following the family and country group song-ownership lines back through generations of leading songmen, give names to the voices on these recordings.