Warnpurru share knowledge with Kiwirrkurra Rangers

Last year Kiwirrkurra Rangers and young fellas from the high school travelled from Kiwirrkurra to Patjarr Community for an exchange with Warnpurru Rangers. Lots of strong family connections and shared culture between the two teams meant that everyone was especially excited to come together, have a wangka (yarn) and share knowledge.

To begin the week, Kiwirrkurra Yarnangu were welcomed to country with a traditional papula ceremony. With young fellas joining the exchange, there was a strong focus on sharing culture and passing down knowledge, including how to protect cultural places from threats like fire and camels. When sharing cultural information like this, rangers, Traditional Owners and Elders follow cultural protocols according to gender and cultural seniority to make sure information is shared right way.

Warnpurru took the group to Tika Tika rockholes, where they showed them the damage camels are causing and the barricades they had tried to put up to protect the rockholes. The group also visited Tjakurapirti, an important place for looking after Tjakura (Great Desert Skink), a place which hadn’t been visited for some years. Here rangers had a wangka about the connected relationship between the blue tongue lizard and the Tjakura, and later the women performed the turlku (dance) for everyone.  

Kiwirrkurra Rangers also got to see the big effort Warnpurru had taken to build rain catchers – camel proof shaded rainwater tanks which allow the rangers to take longer on country trips on Pila Nature Reserve.

Elders spoke to the group at Mina Mina Claypan and soakage about the long journey for Warnpurru Traditional Owners to be acknowledged by law as the rightful custodians of their country.

There was a lot of wangka through the week, with lots of good intergenerational knowledge exchange, and everyone enjoyed learning and spending time with each other on country.