In this episode of Matt’s Chitchats, Matt sits down with the brilliant Voice of Lele. As a proud West Papuan woman, singer, and advocate, Lele shares her powerful story of living in exile and how she uses her music as a vital tool for cultural survival. As the eldest daughter of Australia's first West Papuan refugee family – and the daughter of a member of the legendary Black Brothers Band – music and advocacy truly run in her blood.

In this series, Matt's Chitchats, part of The Secret Life of Language, our host Matt Absalom will talk to all sorts of different people about all sorts of different things relating to languages.

In this candid chitchat with Voice of Lele we dive into why singing in Melanesian languages like Biak, Tok Pisin and Bislama is so crucial to her identity. Lele explains how using a shared langua ...