Aboriginal Way

Kaurna students from Salisbury High School and Kaurna PlainsSchool have been working alongside architects on the development of the Kaurna Living Cultural Garden Project at the South Australian Museum.

The Kaurna Expert Focus Working Group, which has alsofeatured contributions by Kaurna Elders and support from Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation, are working to transform the Museum’s front lawn into a garden where Kaurna culture, language, music, dance, storytelling andconnection to Country can be celebrated and shared.

AW went along to the co-design process and spoke with Kaurna Plains School students Tilaney and Ethan, who shared their ideas and hopes for the proposed space.

Hear Tilaney and Ethan talk about their vision, importanceof Kaurna language, and what this garden could mean for future generations.

Reconciliation SA will hold its fifth annual Fundraiser Galaon Friday 9 October at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre on Kaurna Yerta.

The 2026 theme, ‘Our Path, Our Sound,’ draws on the NationalReconciliation Week theme ‘All In,’ exploring the role of meaningful relationships, truth-telling and First Nations voices in reconciliation.

The gala will feature music and First Nations performances,alongside a seven-course tasting menu highlighting native ingredients and food traditions from across South Australia.

The event is also a fundraiser supporting ReconciliationSA’s programs and community work.

AW spoke with acting CEO and cultural engagement manager of Reconciliation SA, Sean Childs, about the gala, the varied work of the organisation and their commitment to educational programs for the wider community.

For the rangers of the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC), caring for Country is both a practical responsibility and a connection to generations of family and community.

The ranger team works across the Riverland on projects ranging from cultural heritage surveys and land management to wildlife monitoring, community events and environmental restoration.

Senior land management ranger Nicolas Sumner, wetlands ranger Kaleb Karpany and land ranger Cameron Rankine are among those working to protect and restore their traditional lands.

Their work recently included preparing the site of the former Jerry Mason Centre, now Kawun Wampu Cultural Centre - featuring the Ngamrapku Cafe, a site that has long held significance for Aboriginal people in the region.

The River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC) is creating a new chapter for its community with the opening of Kawunwampu Cultural Centre and Ngamrapku Cafe in the Riverland town of Glossop.

Last Friday (Aug 28), RMMAC held a grand opening, welcoming all to come visit and hosting a series of speeches, dance performance and food samplings for attendees.

The goal for the café is to put Aboriginal culture at the forefront of their custom menu, with available items including saltbush seasoned chips, kangaroo steak burgers, wattleseed scones, and more.

The cultural centre will build on the legacy of the former Jerry Mason Centre, which provided programs, including art and support services, for Aboriginal people from the early 1980s.

RMMAC also has plans for cultural tours, walking trails and ranger-led experiences that will share knowledge and strengthen connections to Country.

AW spoke with RMMAC chair Julie Cook and RMMAC director Sarah Lindsay about the project at the event.

Dig a little deeper into some of the fascinating work conducted by Cate Sexton, Hayley Bishop and Cameron McVicar aka the SANTS archaeology research team.

In today's episode we look into some of the ways they engage with Traditional Owner groups in efforts to better understand and protect their Country.

Recommended for all with active interests in taphonomy, stratigraphy and the wider cultural heritage of South Australia.

For generations, Narungga and Kaurna theatre maker Jacob Boehme heard his family talk about "Goolie with the gold tooth" – a kind neighbour who made curries for the children growing up on Logan Street after they left Point Pearce Mission.

That childhood curiosity became Logan Street, a powerful new production with State Theatre Company South Australia that uncovers a remarkable chapter of Adelaide's hidden history.

Blending Aboriginal history, Afghan migration and the lived experiences of communities who found belonging on the city's margins, the production asks an important question: whose stories do we remember, and whose do we forget?

Through family memories, archival research, Kaurna language, music, ceremony and the evocative scents of rosewater and spices, Logan Street brings to life a neighbourhood where Aboriginal families and migrant communities built connections, cared for one another and created home.

For Mr Boehme, the work is deeply personal, but its message is universal: every street holds stories. Sometimes all it takes is a family memory to uncover a forgotten history.

Logan Street is showing at Adelaide Festival Centre's Space Theatre until 8 August.

Full interview with Jacob Boehme available via the link in our bio.

On Friday, 17 July, a dedicated First Nations hearing for the crowd-funded public inquiry into AUKUS will be held at the Event Theatre at 55 Exchange Place, Conservation Council, in Tarntanya.

The hearing will provide an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share firsthand how AUKUS and the planned development of nuclear-powered submarines in South Australia could affect Country, the sea, sovereignty, and the future of their communities.

The inquiry is being led by a panel of commissioners including Yankunytjatjara woman Karina Lester, former Chief of the Australian Defence Force Admiral Chris Barrie, former Western Australian Premier and academic Carmen Lawrence, Australia Institute Co-CEO Leanne Minshull, and Midnight Oil frontman and Landcare Australia Chair Peter Garrett.

AW spoke with Karina Lester about the upcoming hearing, why a dedicated First Nations process is so important, and how First Nations communities can have their voices heard through the inquiry.

For many Australians getting a driver’s licence is often seen as a rite of passage - a first taste of independence and adulthood.  

But in some of South Australia’s most isolated Aboriginal communities, it has historically been far more complicated than simply booking a test and taking driving lessons. 

For years, barriers including distance, language, access to identification documents, limited internet access and the absence of local driving instructors meant many Aboriginal people living in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and surrounding regions were effectively locked out of the licensing system. 

When South Australia’s On the Right Track program first began operating in the APY Lands in 2015, fewer than one in five people over the age of 16 held a learner’s permit or driver’s licence.  

Today, that figure has climbed to around 60 per cent across remote communities stretching from the APY and Maralinga Tjarutja Lands to Ceduna, Coober Pedy, Oodnadatta and parts of the Flinders Ranges. 

Behind those numbers is a decade-long effort that Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) Deputy Director for Aboriginal Strategy Jade Wilson said has become about more than just teaching people to drive. 

We spoke with Ms Wilson and acting coordinator Amy Reid about the last ten years of the program and their aspirations for the future. 

A collaborative team of modern scientists and Ngarrindjeripeople with traditional knowledge have been working together on the Younghusband Peninsula soaks, which have sustained human and animal life for generations.

Some of those soaks still remain today, although many have disappeared, prompting the research project to better understand what has changed across the landscape.

Led by the Coorong Lower Lakes Murray Mouth Research (CLLMM) Centre, the project has focused on identifying freshwater soaks across Australia’s longest coastal dune system, while also working closely with Ngarrindjeri Elders and Indigenous rangers, whose understanding of the Countrystretches back long before modern mapping and satellite technology.

For Ngarrindjeri Elder Uncle Derek Gollan, the work isdeeply connected to his own life and history in the region.

Born at Raukkan, and raised around the Coorong, Uncle Derek spent decades working as a national parks ranger, travelling up and down the peninsula and learning the waterways, dunes and ecosystems through lived experience.

AW spoke with Uncle Derek on Country about his life and experience looking after the Younghusband Peninsula.

Over the past 18 months, Aboriginal leaders have engaged ina co-design process in efforts to guide the South Australian Framework to Advance First Nations Water Interests and deliver beneficial advice on water management for their Country.

During a workshop held on Barngarla Country at Central Ovalin Port Augusta, representatives from PBCs approved a draft framework which will now be submitted to the SA Government for consideration.

Throughout this series of workshops, Traditional Ownersvoiced the specific concerns and aspirations they had for the future management of water on their lands, an area which many in attendance voiced had been overlooked historically.

South Australia’s water resources have historically beenundertaken without due acknowledgement of Traditional Owners’ ancestral rights and obligations to water, impacting Aboriginal people’s ability to use their traditional and ecological knowledge to care for the environment.

During the workshop we spoke with respected Barngarla Elder Harry Dare about water concerns he had for his Country, as part of a wider conversation about the region’s unique challenges when it comes to managing theenvironment.