Jennie Buchanan

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.

This paper is set out as a conversation between three people, an Indigenous person and two non-Indigenous people, who have known and worked with each other for over 30 years. This work has involved them researching with communities in central Australia and the south west of Western Australia. The discussion concerns itself with ideas and practices that come from three conceptual traditions; English, Noongar and Pitjantjatjara to talk about how to build ngapartji ngapartji (“you give and I give in return”, in Pitjantjatjara), karnya birit gnarl (respectful and kind ways of sweating/working with people, in Noongar), between marlpara (“colleagues”, in Pitjantjatjara) and involving warlbirniny quop weirn (singing out to the old people, in Noongar).