Our Schools
Based in the Djelk Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) of west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, the Homeland School Company is in the process of registering three independent schools at Gamardi, Gochan Jiny Jirra and Buluh Kaduru.
Currently, there is only one full-time public school across the entire 6,700 square kilometre Indigenous Protected Area and its many remote outstations. The area is home to 102 clan estates and more than 4,000 people.
Sebastian Pascoe
“We’ve had teachers who have had kids inside on the chairs, looking at the board. But our classroom is out there.”
Our classes will initially be based on the National Curriculum, while we engage curriculum writers and linguists to integrate traditional ecological knowledge and traditional cultural knowledge into the lesson plans.
There will also be a strong focus on materials and resources in language, including Kune and Rembarnga at Buluh Kaduru (Rembarnga has been identified as a highly endangered language), Gunartpa at Gochan Jiny Jirra, and Wularki at Gamardi.
What will classes entail?
At the neighbouring Nawarddeken Academy, the community determines a theme and set of ideas for what is really important for that season. If it’s the wet season, students might learn about the lightning spirits that bring the rain and bush foods that are ripe—they’ll feel, touch, smell and taste the season. Complementary to this, elements of Western science will be introduced.
The students might consider changing states of matter, or how changes to materials can be reversible or irreversible.
