"We’ve gone through all the hurdles, now we are here today, we are celebrating a lot of things... this is our destiny. Destiny of changing the face of education the way that we want, the way we want to teach on our land."
August 31st, 2022
Warddeken IPA
Nawarddeken Academy Limited
In 2014, bi-cultural education on Country was a dream for the Nawarddeken people. Rangers often had to move away from their homelands to secure consistent education for their children, which threatened the intergenerational transfer of traditional ecological knowledge and practices.Today, the Nawarddeken Academy provides consistent bi-cultural education across all three permanent ranger communities in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area. This is setting the standard for what education could look like for remote Indigenous communities, and is equipping the next generation to walk with confidence in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds.
This has been a long journey, with the second and third campuses only recently approved. To celebrate this huge achievement, hundreds of people converged on the outstation community of Kabulwarnamyo in June - including dignitaries such as the Northern Territory and Federal Education Ministers. There were speeches from Elders, leaders and wurdwurd (children) alike, dancing and singing and many happy tears.
You can read news coverage of the celebrations via the ABC website here.The founding, registration and expansion of the Nawarddeken Academy has been made possible by the generous contributions of KKT's supporters. It is truly amazing to reflect on just how far we've come and how much brighter the future will be for the next generation with these schools.
You can support the next stages of the Nawarddeken Academy journey here, or get in touch with us at mail@kkt.org.au to hear more about future plans.
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