After completing her education, Antonova returned to the Kola Peninsula and worked as a teacher at the boarding school in Lovozero from 1956 until retirement.

In 1976, a working group for planning the Sami language was established within the education section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Murman area.

Under the guidance of the educator and linguist Rimma Kuruch, the Sami-speaking teacher, Antonova, and the pedagogue, Boris Gluhov from Murmansk, began to prepare a new orthography and new teaching material for the Kola-Sami.

Georgij K. Kert's Kildin Sámi-Russian-Kildin Sámi dictionary from 1986 was developed with the assistance of Antonova as a native speaker consultant.

In addition to her work as a teacher and language activist, Antonova was also a prolific writer who wrote several collections of poems for children and adults in both Kildin Sámi and Russian.