"Cultural instructors from Scotdesco are learning Wirangu from the elders and then teaching it to the students of Koonibba Aboriginal School through outdoor activities like fishing, reef walking and painting," she said.

"We find it works better because the Aboriginal people are teaching it where they are most comfortable and the kids retain so much more from seeing it."

Koonibba principal Wade Branford said the natural environment was one of the best resources for teaching. "Without question, when you come back to the classroom they are more engaged in journal writing about what they have seen and we also do things in oral form," Mr Branford said.

"It's so important that we keep this language alive."

Two other at-risk languages, Gugada and Mirning, are also taught by the instructors.

Dr Paul Monaghan, linguist with the mobile language team at Adelaide University, said Pitjantjatjara had become such a powerful language that it had taken over and that many schools opted to teach it simply because the resources were easier to obtain. He said it was critical to develop educational materials to preserve Wirangu.

"Any Aboriginal language is threatened so to have just two people left, the threat is very real," Dr Monaghan said. "Even if you had 5000 speakers like Pitjantjatjara does, if none of these speakers is under the age of 20, you're doomed."