But when it is your native tongue she says the motivation is stronger.

The Worimi woman is studying the Gathang language at Port Macquarie TAFE.

The language was spoken by three Indigenous groups on the NSW Mid-North Coast - Birrbay, Warrimay and Guringay - before the last fluent speaker died in the 1960s.

"It is great to be speaking the language but you do realise how much you have missed," she said.

Mrs Hutchinson's sister and brother are also studying the language alongside her at TAFE.

"It is a feeling of ownership of something that has been lost."

"My dad would have been so proud," she said.

Her job as an Aboriginal Education Officer at Wauchope Public School allows her to share her knowledge with her students.

"It has been wonderful to learn but very hard at my age," she said.

"Things don't stay in your mind like they used to but to be able to teach children is a lot easier because their minds are like sponges and they can pick it up."

Rhonda Radley is the Gathang teacher at Port Macquarie TAFE.

"For me it is a way of me honouring my ancestors, to learn my grandfathers language," she said.

She said growing up there was a real absence of language.

"I grew up with a few cultural practices and we did have words but we didn't have fluency," she said.

"I didn't even recognise it was Aboriginal language until I went to school and nobody could understand some of the words I was using.

"There was a lot of fear circulating around that children would be removed and taken off Country if language was passed down."

Ms Radley hopes Gathang language will one day be common place in Port Macquarie.

"I hope we actually speak the language in the street, we can have a full conversation with each other and we can pass the language on to future generations so become a living language," she said.

"The long-term plan is to actually grow the teachers of language.

"We are getting a lot of schools wanting to deliver language programs and we haven't got the teachers at this point in time."

She said the process of revitalising language is healing for her community.

"It is uplifting for our mob if we can connect back to culture and in that process there could be some really deep healing that happens which really needs to happen for our people."