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Central Australian Excursion**

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2016

Jill Kennedy*
Affiliation:
Ceduna Area School, CEDUNA S.A.
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Extract

In June this year a Central Australian excursion was organized by the Department of Labor and Ceduna Area School for seven of the school’s secondary Aboriginal students. With the exception of Keith Peters, a first year student who had recently come to Ceduna from Yalata, the students had had very little contact with the tribal way of life. They were ignorant of Aboriginal customs and laws, and in some respects this ignorance had led to contempt or fear. Some of the boys were, for example, terrified that they could be taken and forcibly initiated, so that, when on the first evening of the trip we were stopped by some Yalata people on the road south of Coober Pedy, they begged us to drive on, and hid their faces under blankets in the back seat. The second night (Saturday June 21st) we camped out for the first time just north of the turn-off to Indulkana. Keith, a great comedian, but at this stage not well-known to, or accepted by, the others in the group, decided to stir them up by mentioning that there were “wild nungas” in the area. This raised considerable alarm and for the rest of the night few of the boys dared to leave the campfire without a strong stick and a friend as a bodyguard.

Type
Across Australia …… From Teacher to Teacher
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1975

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** Submitted by Mr. Craig Cameron, Principal, Ceduna Area School, who commented – “…The excursion was most successful and it has indicated to us that the detribalised Aboriginal students of this school have a very deep interest in their own culture and that we should be including a study of this nature in the curriculum. As a consequence we have arranged for the Pitjantjatjara language to be studied as part of the normal school curriculum for Aboriginal students, and We trust for any other interested students, and this should come into effect in the very near future.”.