WARBURTON RANGES CAMPUS, NGAANYATJARRA LANDS SCHOOLKEYWORDS: Culture, Language

PRIORITY AREASInnovation & Cultural

Creative 21st century Professional Regional Young people at difference & Processes Partnerships technology learning & remote Indigenous educational risk Disability diversity

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THE PARTNERSHIP

The Warburton Ranges Campus is one of many school sites that form the Ngaanyatjarra Lands School, a federated school established at the beginning of 2007. The Federation aggregated what was previously nine remote community schools and one annexe on the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Warburton Ranges is an Aboriginal community located in the Western Desert near the confluence of the Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australian border, approximately 1500 kilometres from Perth.

There is a rich cultural heritage maintained by the Ngaanyatjarra people, which has a significant impact on the provision of schooling. The majority of the students are Indigenous and their first language may be Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi or Pitjantjatjara. English is a second, third or fourth language and there is little in the Ngaanyatjarra culture or communities which supports the development and maintenance of literacy and numeracy skills. Additionally school attendance rates are low and health and welfare issues have a significant impact on student engagement.

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The school leadership structure includes an Executive Principal with a Level 3 Associate Principal aligned to each of the nine campuses. In 2010 Mr Stephen Soames was the Principal at the Warburton Ranges campus. Stephen had previously met the lead artist of the AIR Project Leon Ewing when he was a short term artist-in-residence at the remote community of Laverton. At the time Stephen was the Deputy Principal at Laverton School. Leon identified the AIR funding opportunity and worked with Stephen at his new post at Warburton Ranges to write a successful application.

Leon Ewing is a diverse interdisciplinary artist with over 20 years experience as a performer, musician, writer/director, audiovisual designer and new media artist. He has extensive experience working in rural and remote communities throughout the world.

South Korean born, and raised in Western

Australia, Saritah is a songwriter, vocalist and

multi-instrumentalist. For cultural reasons Saritah was

brought on board to work with the female students at

the school.

THE PARTNERSHIP

The Warburton Ranges Campus is one of many school sites that form the Ngaanyatjarra Lands School, a federated school established at the beginning of 2007. The Federation aggregated what was previously nine remote community schools and one annexe on the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Warburton Ranges is an Aboriginal community located in the Western Desert near the confluence of the Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australian border, approximately 1500 kilometres from Perth.

There is a rich cultural heritage maintained by the Ngaanyatjarra people, which has a significant impact on the provision of schooling. The majority of the students are Indigenous and their first language may be Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi or Pitjantjatjara. English is a second, third or fourth language and there is little in the Ngaanyatjarra culture or communities which supports the development and maintenance of literacy and numeracy skills. Additionally school attendance rates are low and health and welfare issues have a significant impact on student engagement.

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THE PROJECT

The original proposal for the school’s AIR project was to engage the students in cross-curricular activities to build capacity within the school and community in musical performance and production. Artists Leon and Saritah would work closely with the students to develop song-writing skills, record songs, teach production techniques and deliver a musical performance.

During the life of the project, there was a large turnover of staff with a large number leaving and not all positions were able to be replaced. As a result the timetable had to be reorganised in order that the school could staff classes with fewer teachers. The working and living conditions also deteriorated throughout the artists time in the community due to an absence of maintenance staff. Despite these, and many other challenges, a project which defied expectation was carried out.

OUTCOMES

Leon worked mainly with the male students and he used a range of strategies to engage them, including out of hours school time working in the community, which enabled him to build meaningful relationships, supporting the project outcomes. The students guided by Leon played, sung and composed music, and were also involved in video and sound recording workshops. An electric drum kit, iMac computers and ‘GarageBand’ and ‘iMovie’ software was purchased from school funds for the students to learn to use and manipulate.

During her visits, Saritah worked with the secondary school girls writing songs which were incorporated into their morning literacy sessions. Unsure about playing the instruments, which were seen as the boys’ domain, the girls were keen to sing along with Saritah when she played and sang. Significantly, two students joined her when she performed for the community one evening.

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OUTCOMES

The project addressed the learning areas of The Arts, English, and Technology and Enterprise, and the social skills of collaboration and commitment. Engagement with the primary school students was simple and consisted predominantly of listening, singing and responding to music.

A comprehensive cross-curricular approachwas adopted for the secondary school students with a focus on musical skills. Theprocess of song production incorporated literacy through lyric writing in both Ngaanyatjarra language and Standard Australian English and was embedded within the Department of Education’s mandated Aboriginal Literacy Strategy. Learning was very intense for the students who participated in the project. Many of the secondary school boys have developeda much stronger understanding of the roles and responsibilities associated with belonging to a band and the creative process of song writing. Additionally they are able to independently use the computersoftware for musical post-production.

“The artistic outcomes of the AIR project exceeded my expectations. I never dreamed the students would achieve the level of autonomy and computer literacy that they did. In the end, it was self-directed production and I just needed to be there to press ‘record’. The latent talent amongst these kids is culturally unique.” LEON EWING

As there were limited opportunities to conduct professional learning for the teaching staff, Leon held jam sessions after school with four of the schools’ male teachers. Writing and playing songs in English and Ngaanyatjarra language, the staff formed a band called the Wadjella Band, and also learnt how to use the ‘GarageBand’ software.

“I wanted teachers to see music as a starting point of a multi-arts experience for themselves and students.” LEON EWING

IMPACT

The partnership between the artists and the school established a bridge to engage the students with education, a key strategy to reduce Indigenous disadvantageas identified in the Federal Government’s Closing the Gap strategy.

Although the AIR project had an end date, it has the potential to be the beginning of something productive for the students involved.

“The success of this project is a testimony to both the artists and the teachers. There is a strong sense from the students, community and staff that the artistic output of the students has been well captured and recognised.” MR STEPHEN SOAMES, PRINCIPAL

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Both artists enjoyed working in the environment and being employed for a secure and defined period of time. While working at the Warburton Ranges Campus, Ngaanyatjarra Lands School Leon successfully applied for a Limited Authority to Teach. In addition to a newfound interest in teaching, Leon also benefited immensely from an artistic perspective:

“I learned new skills through the AIR project and feel I have really come into my own as a filmmaker. I produced a number of short arthouse style documentaries made with diverse demographics associated with the school, and near completion is an album’s worth of original and local songs recorded in traditional language at broadcast quality.” LEON EWING

TOP TIPIt’s the process not the product.

Whilst the artists managed to achieve some excellent outcomes in terms of product, they also realised early on that this would be a bonus, not the impetus of the project. For this project it was crucial that the strengths were in developing relationships, engaging students in the creative process and allowing them to set the work pace.

“I’m constantly learning not to be too attached to achieving production outcomes, and to accept that to just spend time with the girls has great value.” SARITAH

Project Summary Grant: $29,952Duration: 48 days (collectively approx. 540 hours)Number of students involved: 108 (32% of the student population)Number of teachers involved: 8 Number of artists involved: 2Key learning areas addressed: English, Society and Environment, Technology and

Enterprise, The ArtsArt forms addressed: Media, Music

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