Welcome

Warawara - Department of Indigenous Studies is an Academic Department located within the Faculty of Arts. Apart from teaching Indigenous studies across the university, Warawara facilitates an alternative entry program aimed at providing access for Indigenous people to undergraduate courses across the University.

Warawara also offers two residential or "Block attendance" courses. One of these is the Bachelor in Community Management while the other is the Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Services).

In addition to facilitating educational opportunities for Indigenous people, Warawara also offers student support to Indigenous students enrolled across the University.

Warawara Personnel (Left to Right): Top - Dr. Kristina Everett, Lana Leslie, Adj/Prof. Ray Norris, Sam Altman, A/Prof Susan Page, Lynda-June Coe, Corrinne Franklin, Shantel Weatherall, Dr. Michelle Trudgett. Bottom - Duane Hamacher, Bronwen Wade-Leeuwen, Gabrielle Fletcher, Kylie Flood. Not Pictured: Terry Widders, Natalie Burns, Dr. Glenda Moylan-Brouff.

News

Cosmic find unearthed using Aboriginal Dreaming story
Macquarie Univesity PhD candidate Duane Hamacher has unearthed a previously unknown meteorite crater using a Western Arrernte Dreaming story about a star that fell to the earth at a place called Puka in Palm Valley, Northern Territory. The circular structure, found using Google Maps, was surveyed by Hamacher, Macquarie geophysicists Dr Craig O'Neill and Andrew Buchel, and Macquarie astrophysicist Tui Britton. The survey revealed the presence of shocked quartz - a prime indicator of cosmic impacts - in rock samples taken from the site. "The bowl shaped morphology of the crater cannot be explained by anything other than a cosmic impact. It was not caused by erosion and there is no volcanic activity in the region."

ABC's Message Stick: Before Galileo (25:47)
In the International Year of Astronomy, astronomers world-wide are celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning a telescope to the sky and while some Aboriginal artists and elders are learning from astronomers and seeing a western view of their constellations, they in turn are teaching astronomers their stories and ways they have viewed the stars way before Galileo was born. Wardaman Senior elder Bill Yidumduma Harney from Menngen, near Katherine in the NT, was raised by Wardaman lore men and women in the bush, during the assimilation era and taught the spiritual and practical significance of reading the night sky.

William Dawes: the diaries (a Warawara launch)
The notebooks of Lieutenant William Dawes at the SOAS Library Special Collections are the major source of information about the Aboriginal language of Sydney and contain some informatino of Aboriginal Astronomy. They contain information of significance to Aboriginal communities of New South Wales, to linguists, historians, residents of Sydney, and many others. This website is the result of a collaboration between the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project and the Library Special Collections, both of which are based at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Our aim is to enable easy access to the notebooks through the publication of high quality images and a new electronic text version. Funding and resources for the project were provided by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, SOAS, and Aboriginal Affairs NSW.

• Australia's first astronomers (Big Aussie Starhunt)
• Warawara welcomes our new admin manager: Casie Gambrel
• Indigenous Jobs Australia

BCM & BTeach Block Course Info

• BTeach Block Information
• BCM Block Information