Dave Palmer

In the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of desert Western Australia, older people are being encouraged to participate meaningfully in student education. This initiative is being led by two of the authors of this article, senior Ngaanyatjarra women, both of whom work with the Ngaanyatjarra Lands School with its campuses in eight remote communities spread over hundreds of kilometres. Elderly men and women, some of whom are residents in the Ngaanyatjarra Aged Care home (Ngaanyatjarra Health Service, 2021), are eagerly participating in the planning of bush trips, gathering their traditional resources, seeds, grinding stones, bush resins, recalling stories, songs, and dances—as they prepare for the bush camps with students. During the camps the schoolteachers step back and the elderly lead in what is known as two‐way science. At first glance, this work may look like it is simply focused on the educational needs of students with senior Yarnangu acting in a supporting role. However, this article will demonstrate the continuous connections and responsibilities, laid out in the Tjukurrpa (the Dreaming), between the old and the young, to their ancestral lands. It sets out how according to " Tjukurrpa thinking, " the principal way to provide good care is by helping senior people remain on country with family, pass on their knowledge to younger people, and thus keep strong languages and kurrunpa (people's spirit) alive.

Moodjar Consultancy recognises the Whadjuk people as the traditional owners of the greater Swan Plain area. For the Whadjuk people, these are places that have strong social, spiritual, cultural and historic significance. The following report provides an account of the Nyoongar participants in the survey conducted on the 27th and 29th of January 2021.

The purpose of this report is to identify what, according to Nyoongar participants, is significant about the Nyoongar cultural heritage of the Alkimos site. As has been set out in the Archaeological Report, there are no registered Aboriginal sites within the survey area. However Nyoongar custodians and participants in the survey consider the pinnacles area, a small reed area in the northwest corner of the site and the sand dune systems and wooded area on the eastern reaches of the site to be of Nyoongar cultural significance.

Introduction: The management of early childhood caries (ECC) is challenging. Objectives: A model of care based on Atraumatic Restorative Treatment and the Hall Technique (ART-HT) to manage ECC was evaluated among remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. Methods: Aboriginal communities in the North-West of Western Australia were invited to participate and consenting communities were randomized into early or delayed intervention for the management of ECC. Children were examined at baseline and at the 11-mo follow-up. The early intervention group (test) was provided with the ART-based dental care at baseline while the delayed intervention group (control) was advised to seek care through the usual care options available within the community. At follow-up, both groups were examined by calibrated examiners, and were offered care using the ART-HT approach. Changes from baseline to follow-up in caries experience were tested using paired tests. Multivariate analysis after multiple imputation of missing data used generalised estimating equation (GEE) controlling for clustering within communities. Results: A total of 25 communities and 338 children (mean age = 3.6 y, SD 1.7) participated in the study (test = 177). At follow-up, 231 children were examined (68% retention, test = 125). At follow-up, children in the test group had more filled teeth (test filled teeth = 1.2, control filled teeth = 0.2, P < 0.001) and decreased levels of decayed teeth (mean test = 0.7 fewer teeth with decay, mean control = 1.0 more tooth with decay, P < 0.001). GEE analysis controlled for baseline caries experience, age, sex, and community water fluoride levels found increased rates of untreated decayed teeth (RR = 1.4, P = 0.02) and decreased rates of filled teeth (RR = 0.2, P < 0.001) at follow-up among the control group. Conclusion: A model of care relying on the principles of minimally invasive atraumatic approaches enabled the delivery of effective dental services to young children (<6 y) in remote Aboriginal Australian communities resulting in increased levels of care and improved oral health.

A Lowitja Institute project led by Dr Mick Adams has culminated in a powerful video showing the role of culture, law and community in turning young men into leaders.

The ‘Valuing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Young Men’ video follows a group of Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi men and women in mid-2019 “who were invited to show others how culture and law helps keep young men healthy, strong and good leaders.”

Dinah Norman a-Marrngawi explained that her Country cannot hear English, it can only hear Yanyuwa. We support Dinah’s position – because the English language underpins the Australian colonial project, and has been used to separate, ignore and take from Country, her peoples and their knowledges. Country responds to people, however, for example when there is empathic, creative communication and engagement with landscapes, and when liyan and wirrin is the basis for human and ecological wellbeing. We propose a practice for people new to this participation; of ‘becoming family with place’. It integrates four ways of knowing, to celebrate an ontopoetic for Country that is experiential, creative, propositional and participative – a post-conceptual knowing for human flourishing. It is for coming home to Country, and is for learning and educational purposes.

Who are the great activists, thinkers and writers who can inspire us in our community development work?

Environmentalists, poets, philosophers, civil rights activists, trade unionists – all can help us question the assumptions that underlie our international development practice. This book invites students and professionals of community development and citizen activists to reflect on the roots of their practice and discover the wisdom of writers they may not have heard of before.

The book highlights 40 personal and rigorous reflections, distilling several wisdoms and 40 ‘gems’ of ideas for community development, from thought-leaders including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ela Bhatt, Jacques Derrida, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, John Keats, Rosa Luxemburg, Wangari Maathai, Manfred Max-Neef, Arundhati Roy, E.F. Schumacher, Vandana Shiva, Rabindranath Tagore and Greta Thunberg.

The book’s introduction will support readers in creating a personal practice framework, and a Coda/Map of Practice offers a vibrant visual representation of practice wisdoms in watercolour.

40 Critical Thinkers in Community Development is an important resource for daily or weekly readings and reflections, study groups, working or project teams, and as a resource for teachers of community development.

Building on a methodology of Cooperative Inquiry, the outcomes of five interconnected place-based learning projects from Australia are synthesised and elaborated in this paper. The methodology can facilitate the everyday living and sharing of an Earth-based consciousness: one that enriches Transformative Sustainability Education (TSE) through recognising meanings and stories in landscape, and celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous-led environmental education is shown to link with one of the longest continuous environmental education systems in the world and it is contended that because of its ongoing history, environmental education carries a cultural obligation. In Australia, every landscape is Indigenous and storied, and all Australians have an inherent right to learn that joy in place, along with the responsibility to care for it. Teaching and learning a relationship with place as family, is one way that environmental education can lead that campaign. This place-based methodology is a lifetime commitment involving everyday actions for change, a whole-of-education dedication.