ABSTRACT
In 1998-2004, a group of senior Anangu Aboriginal women from Coober Pedy, known as the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, led the acclaimed Irati Wanti (‘Leave the Poison’) anti-nuclear campaign to successfully prevent a nuclear waste dump being developed on their lands. This chapter considers how the cultural strength and strategic activism of the Kungka Tjuta has shaped the personal, public, and professional praxis of a Yankunytjatjara academic and researcher at university. It will particularly consider how such localised Indigenous community standpoints, through the protection of country and educational philosophies, have informed a new teaching and research methodological framework, Becoming Knowledgeable. Ngapartji-Ngapartji, an Anangu philosophy of mutual reciprocation, benefit and responsibility, grounds eight guiding principles that inform this framework and embodied praxis, that can be applied in a range of culturally and locally situated contexts. The example of teaching core Indigenous topics to pre-services teachers in education is used and demonstrates how such an Indigenous embodied praxis can frame and inform critical relationships with Indigenous students, families and communities, and teaching effectively for social justice and transformation. This chapter ends with a manifesto – A Becoming Song offering, from a Yankunytjatjara academic.
