Learning to care for Country the Indigenous way

The Habitat Warriors Team

Habitat Warriors is a fun, nature-based program that teaches children about native plants and wildlife.

But it’s much more than that. Because the program aims to teach children about Australia’s natural environment from an Indigenous perspective through cultural heritage sessions. Given that Indigenous knowledge was traditionally passed on orally, the program focuses on teaching Aboriginal culture hands-on via traditional ways.

Traditional Owner representative Kai Lane, a proud Yorta-Yorta/Barapa-Barapa man, runs the Habitat Warrior’s cultural heritage sessions. NAIDOC Week is a special time for Kai as the founder of this important celebration, Willam Cooper, is also a proud Yorta-Yorta man and Kai’s sixth great uncle.

Kai views working on Country like a family business – albeit one that has been around for 65,000 years! He considers it an honour to continue the family business by passing on traditional knowledge to the next generation. He believes that healthy Country with clean waterways and forests and bushland creates a “feel good” emotion. The reverse, an “ill” feeling, occurs when the landscape is damaged - a bit like bad karma.

In the Cultural Heritage session, children learn about Aboriginal culture through Welcome ceremony dances, storytelling, Aboriginal artwork, and marngrook ball games. Sessions start with a welcome dance, where Kai teaches children about how tribes welcome others to their land through a ceremony. Children are shown the different echoes of the digeridoo in a mini-corroboree where they decorate themselves using emu feathers and Eucalyptus leaves.

Kai tells the children about his journey from Yorta-Yorta country and coming to a new tribe in Wurundjeri country, describing the animals that he saw along the way. This journey is expressed via dance and Kai gives some tips for “how to read Country”.

Aboriginal artwork is all around us, but it is important to teach children what the symbols mean. Kai likens Aboriginal art to a dictionary - you can’t understand any of the words in the dictionary without the letters, and the letters represent the symbols found in the artwork. Once you learn the symbols then you can read the story beneath.

Marngrook is an important game, as it shows children the similarities between an Aboriginal child’s life and their own - both love to run and play games! Children have the opportunity to ask questions about Aboriginal culture through a game of “hot potato” with the handwoven marngrook ball.

Kai is proud to continue his legacy through sharing and teaching the oldest living culture in the world. He feels that “it’s in our heart and blood to care for Country” and that we need to look after traditional knowledge so it will not be forgotten and we can pass it on to the next generation. It is incredibly important to First Nations peoples that they look after this knowledge and continue the tradition of caring for Country into the future.

The Cultural Heritage session is only one of several programs and sessions the Habitat Warriors run. Some help schools to run complete native plant revegetation programs and others teach students to make rope bridges for arboreal wildlife and natural shelters for ground dwellers. For further information, visit www.habitatwarriors.com.au  

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