The Nawarddeken Academy in the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area offers a unique model of bicultural, community-driven education in remote Indigenous communities in west Arnhem Land, established at the request of local Indigenous Elders who wanted children to access full-time education in their home communities.

The Kuwarddewardde Malkno (Seasonal Stone Country Calendar) is at the heart of the school’s curriculum, with six seasons forming the teaching and learning structure of the school year. This pioneering, culturally-oriented curriculum focuses on Bininj Lore and knowledge, offering cultural learning priorities within a framework that informs all learning experiences, including those focused on collecting, hunting and cooking traditional bush foods.

The school has a dedicated local staff who run their nutrition program which provides daily breakfast and lunch for students. The students enjoy cooking, with secondary students cooking one lunch per week for the rest of the students.

The school’s extremely remote location means that for half of the year they are only accessible by charter plane, and food is flown in once a fortnight.

With food security and socio-economic factors identified as challenges for the community, along with very high rates of diabetes and heart disease, opportunities for students and community to learn how to grow and cook nutritious foods were identified as important priorities.

When students and community members requested space for a productive garden to be established at the school, the school responded by applying for a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program Kickstart Grant.

Identifying that the Kitchen Garden Program aligns closely with the school’s values of community, and bi-cultural learning experiences, the program fit naturally into the cultural curriculum by integrating traditional ecological knowledge with modern practices, encouraging students to engage with local food systems, and learn more about bush foods.

The Kitchen Garden Program supports the school’s commitment to learning on Country, and encourages active participation from both students and the wider community strengthening community ties by involving parents and elders in garden activities, sharing knowledge, and celebrating traditional and modern ways of food cultivation.

After just seven months of program implementation, the school reported improvements in:

• Recognition of fruits and vegetables
• Cooking knowledge, confidence and skills
• Gardening knowledge, confidence and skills
• School engagement and attendance
• Inclusive, accessible and interactive learning environments
• Resilience

Their Kitchen Garden Program supported learning of curriculum general capabilities in the areas of Literacy, Numeracy, and Personal and Social Capability, and aligns with their Sustainability cross-curriculum priority.

“Our students benefitted from working together as a large team with students aged from 5 to 18, and working with the rangers. Our secondary students LOVE to cook and this motivates them to come to school.” – Melanie Cole, Senior Teacher Wellbeing and Inclusion

The school also reported improvements related to Community Connection through the Kitchen Garden Program including

• Collaborative partnerships with families
• Collaborative partnerships with community members
• Links with community organisations

Senior students had opportunities to improve their leadership skills, being involved in the co-design of their remote kitchen garden. They held a planning meeting with community, Traditional Owners, rangers and care takers to consult on the location, layout and types of plants to be planted, followed by an excursion to Maningrida to buy the plants from the local nursery.

Warddeken Land Management provided machinery to clear the garden area, as well as soil and sand for the garden beds, teaching the students how to prepare the ground, how deep to dig, and how to plant the seedlings.

Students built their resilience through overcoming challenges such as their seedlings dying twice, gardening in the heat, and outsmarting the wak wak (crows) — a fantastic challenge to design a system to keep them out of the garden beds.

Thanks to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program Kickstart Grant the school now has raised garden beds, irrigation, and a food forest, and has introduced whole of school composting to ensure circular, regenerative practices.

Teachers and students at the school have been inspired by the Shared Table online community of practice, using the photos of other school gardens to inform the design process for their Kitchen Garden Program.

After seeing the Mamadawerre school garden, the Manmoyi campus was inspired to create their own garden and composting system.