Educating future custodians
Celebrating
ten
years
of
the
Nawarddeken
Academy
"Our kids want to go to Nawarddeken Academy because they’re on their homelands. They’re comfortable in their environment and they feel safe. Sisters, brothers, cousins all in the same classroom, learning together alongside their families. This is what we’ve fought so hard for.” - Michelle Bangarr, Nawarddeken Academy Deputy Chair, teacher and parent
In the heart of West Arnhem Land, the Warddeken ranger program was proving that caring for Country could create meaningful, long-term jobs in remote communities. Yet in Kabulwarnamyo, the ranger outstation at the centre of this work, families faced an impossible choice. Without a local school, children had to live away from home to receive an education. For many rangers, that meant leaving their jobs and Country to be with their children, or living apart from them for much of the year.
Elders, Traditional Owners and senior community leaders knew that the long-term health of the ranger program, and of the Kuwarddewardde (Stone Country), depended on keeping families together on their homelands. The solution was clear: to have a strong, high-quality school in the community itself, where children could learn every day.
The idea for an on-County school first took shape in conversations between Elders, Traditional Owners, Warddeken Land Management leaders, and board and staff of the Karrkad Kanjdji Trust (KKT). In those early meetings, the message from the community was consistent and powerful: a local school was the single most important investment for the future of the ranger program and the wellbeing of families.
With leadership from Traditional Owners and the support of partners, the concept of the Nawarddeken Academy emerged. The goal was ambitious, to establish a school in one of the most remote corners of the continent, designed by and for the community, and grounded in both cultural authority and educational excellence.
Kabulwarnamyo outstation, Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area
“This is the important thing for us—to teach our kids not only in our Bininj culture but also in Balanda education. Both. We like to see that, so our kids can move forward both ways.”
- Lois Nadjamerrek, Elder and teacher at Kabulwarnamyo
In 2014, Elders, Traditional Owners, Warddeken Land Management and KKT began shaping that idea into a plan. There were conversations about classrooms that could stretch beyond four walls, teachers working alongside cultural professors, and a curriculum that blended the Australian Curriculum with local language, culture and knowledge of Country.
The community’s commitment was steadfast. Warddeken provided logistics and staff support, while KKT secured the first funding from donors who believed in the vision. In 2015, a long-held dream became a reality when the first school opened at Kabulwarnamyo.
As the hub of most ranger activity, Kabulwarnamyo was the natural choice for the first school. The classroom was simple, native cypress poles, a tarpaulin roof, desks set out under shade, but it marked something extraordinary: the beginning of full-time, on-Country schooling and the start of a new chapter for life in the Kuwarddewardde.
The Nawarddeken Academy’s two-way learning model values and incorporates tens of thousands of years of cultural knowledge into the Australian Curriculum, ensuring the school is highly representative of people and place, while still meeting national education standards. This means that learning happens both in the classroom and out on Country.
“This is a bush library. This is where you learn your knowledge.” - Ross Guymala,
Teacher at Manmoyi
At the heart of the Academy’s model is the Indigenous Language and Culture (ILC) curriculum, delivered by local cultural experts and teaching assistants. ILC lessons are woven into the school week, covering traditional ecological knowledge, cultural practices, place names, kinship systems, and the stories that connect people to Country. Students learn not just about culture, but also through culture, using language, story, and experience.
The Kuwarddewardde Malkno (seasonal calendar of the Stone Country) is a framework created by Elders and Traditional Owners to map the plants, animals, weather patterns, and cultural activities unique to each season.
It shows the smaller seasonal shifts—when bush foods are ready, when certain birds are nesting, or when it’s time to burn Country in the right way. Teachers then use this seasonal knowledge to frame lessons so that the rhythm of school follows the rhythm of Country.
For example, in kudjewk, the season of thunderstorms and lightning and the start of Term 1, the youngest primary students will learn about waterways and how they connect people; older primary students will learn about the water cycle and the yawkyawk (female water spirit); and the most senior primary students will learn about frog life cycles and food chains. All of the lessons are highly place-based, but can also all still be applied to other intersecting systems of knowledge, supporting students to grow up strong in both worlds.
Nawarddeken families swimming near a waterfall in West Arnhem Land
"The kids love coming to school. Those kids used to go to Gunbalanya but now they like to stay here and come to school."
- Conrad Maralngurra,
Nawarddeken Academy Chair
The overwhelming success of the first school at Kabulwarnamyo inspired Traditional Owners and families living at the Manmoyi and Mamardawerre outstations to achieve the same for their communities. Subsequently, by 2021, the Nawarddeken Academy was delivering on-Country, bi-cultural K–7 education at three permanent outstations within the Warddeken IPA.
As the primary schools matured, attention turned to creating on-Country opportunities for both early learners and older students. The Nawarddeken Academy established an Early Learning Program at every outstation, and also began offering ungraded secondary education and hosting vocational pathways. This ensured that every child had the opportunity to come to school to learn and develop.
In 2024, once all three primary schools had been steadily operating for more than two years, the Nawarddeken Academy submitted an application to the Northern Territory Government to open an independent secondary school. This application was approved at the beginning of 2025, which meant that the Kunmayali (Knowledge) School was able to open its doors in time for Term 1.
In just ten years, after decades of inadequate or entirely absent state provision, Elders and Traditional Owners secured self-determined, two-way education for every child and young person in the Kuwarddewardde.
Nawarddeken Academy students gathered under bark shelter
"We are teaching young people about the Country, the walking routes, the place names, experiences with the Country and then they in turn follow this way. This is not a new thing. It's just what our old people before us taught us." - Professor Mary Kolkiwarra Nadjamerrek
The past decade has brought transformative change to the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area, and the community-led vision for the next decade is similarly ambitious.
Within the next ten years, the Nawarddeken Academy hopes for Bininj leaders to be at the centre of education delivery across the Arnhem Plateau: as principals, education managers, coordinators, cultural advisors and teachers.
The Nawarddeken Academy’s model will also expand beyond the Kuwarddewardde for the first time through the newly established Homeland School Company (HSC).
With KKT’s support, the HSC will open three independent, community-owned schools in the neighbouring Djelk Indigenous Protected Area—offering more children the chance to learn ‘both ways’ on their homelands.
This is an extraordinary story of what can be achieved through First Nations leadership and collective action: a future where all children have access to a quality, full-time education.
Both KKT and the Nawarddeken Academy offer our lasting thanks to all that have supported and continue to support this work, and look forward to watching the bi-cultural, on-Country education movement continue to grow over the next ten years.
Read the full ten-year report here.
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