The linguist Bernhard Schebeck travelled to the Nepabunna region in the 1970s, and wrote An Adnyamathanha-English Research Dictionary in 2000, which was "For private, or internal, use only – not for publication".

[11] Terrence, an Adnyamathanha speaker, had been collecting information on the culture and language for 40 years, building on the earlier work by Schebeck and Tunbridge.

[9] Linguists and others from the University of Adelaide's Mobile Language Team helped the couple to finalise work on the book in the 18 months to two years before publication.

[11][9] The Coulthards run Iga Warta, a cultural tourism enterprise, located near Nepabunna in the Gammon Ranges, the site of a mission where Terrence grew up.

[9] Iga Warta means "native orange",[12] named by 19th-century English botanist John Lindley as Capparis mitchelii.