The purpose of this document is to sketch out some ideas for the design of a pattern of  initiatives. 

These initiatives are to be "positioned" at different "stages" between western economic rationality and a cultural framework more congenial to Aboriginal tribes people. 

Those closest to the economic rationale would naturally be easiest to develop and sustain according to conventional business approaches. Those closest to an Aboriginal cultural framework would require most creativity in ensuring their economic viability. They might however offer the greatest opportunities for challenging new insight to non-Aborigines -- as well as being of most value to Aborigines themselves. 

The Pitjantjatjara elders of Angatja and Cave Hill  established Desert Tracks as a cross-cultural Bush College in 1988 with the long term aim of  developing a Bush University to teach  their cultural knowledge and the western skills necessary to their communities. Their aim is  to provide cross-cultural learning situations where all traditions of knowledge were honoured and bridges of understanding developed between the different ways of knowing. Indigenous intellectual knowledge is controlled 
by the elders at all times and any material produced appropriately copyrighted.

The type of learning camps or campuses and the subject areas to be studied are in development.. Some will be more geared to economic, environmental,  social and cultural sustainability. While other areas of knowledge exchange will have a more philosophical or spiritual value. 

It is expected that people and processes would transfer with greatest facility between neighbouring initiatives. Cultural acclimatization at any particular "stage" might be required before transferring on to another stage - whether towards western economic rationality or towards an Aboriginal cultural context. 

The pattern of initiatives might therefore be understood metaphorically like a sequence of sub-surface staging posts at which divers can work -- or like a series of camps required in the course of climbing the highest of mountains. They might also be thought of as a paradigm "bridge". 

To move from one camp to another you travel slowly, walk to the nearest camp, wait like a stranger on the outside to be asked in, do not presume acceptance or recognition of prior learning from the outside it might be meaningless on the inside.

Ngapartji, ngapartji! in return. Those on the inside must walk carefully out, needing to learn new skills. Learn the language .Sit and observe, walk behind with respect and earn your right to be respected. People may alternatively be learners and teachers in their cultural knowledge.

As with all systems of knowledge, people will have to go through several stages of acquiring knowledge and complete these to a satisfactory level of accomplishment to be recognised by the community as one who 'knows' .
Then progress to the next ring around the core fire of one discipline or movement to another fire or camp can be made.

Each culture has a complementary series of social, moral and other codes that protect the individuals, therefore movement of individuals into other cultural norms should be by careful steps with protection.

The law is different for each role in society. We are one person but also know how to be many different people. We move between different camps .
 

Each camp/campus of each discipline will be related to all other camps, thus ensuring deep interdisciplinary respect and co-operation on all kin levels of  grandparent/ grandchild, parent/ child, sibling, and the new ideas from grandchildren camps being listened to by grandparent camps. [See kinship model of interrelationships between camps/ campuses.]

Access to the teaching fires of the elders or professors will be by acknowledgment of attainment of knowledge and readiness judged so by the elders. Prior knowledge or achievement in other systems of knowledge may or may not be judged sufficient. 

The shortest way between two points is not necessarily a straight line  in the desert. Survival may require knowledge of the longer circuitous route. Knowing the 'songline' allows students to find the waterholes and food along the 
'learning' trail . Those who try to travel too fast ignoring the 'songline' may perish. 

Whilst an initiative may have an apparent economic dimension, this could be quite secondary to sustaining processes important to key participants - for whom other criteria would apply. 

Whilst even in the least economically focused initiative, some participants may be found who are well-resourced or with strong economic preoccupations, of far greater importance is the level of subtlety at which most participants there choose to operate - or the level at which some there may be able to operate. It is that which ensures the "tethering" at various "levels" of meaning -- or degrees of opening to the unconscious. 

• Reciprocity /Ngapartji-ngapartji : deep sharing of knowledge;
• Kinship / Walytja : kin  relationships between students/ teachers, learning camps, and campfires;
• Songline Way  / Inma Way:  honouring the power of our imagination to co-create new 'songlines' to maintain cultural and ecological diversity;
• Listening / Kulini:  - will determine the depth of the exchange.

Clearly the purpose would be to attract paying visitors to offer them an experience of an alternative lifestyle in relation to the land and those who choose to live there. It would be an essentially safe environment, although distinctly less commercial than the main tourist complex at Yulara. In contrast to Yulara, for example, special attention would be given to the interface through which visitors and Aborigines interacted. The style might be usefully compared to the complex at Manyallaluk (near Katherine). As with Findhorn, the infrastructure might be initially limited to caravan facilities sensitively designed to blend into the environment. The centre would be used as a base for eco- tourism exploration of the land.

Atal campsite with low key  environmentally suitable accommodation. Angatja Bush College type tours.

• Reciprocity: working as guides, learning tourism business, economic return.
• Kinship:  becoming friends, family with people from other cultures.
• Songline Way: teaching the Songlines, keeping tradition alive.
• Listening: teaching awareness of Land. Learning western ways of Landcare.

• Reciprocity : economic return for traditional medicine knowledge and teaching of western sciences related to plants and healing.
• Kinship: relationships between western and indigenous knowledge of healing.
• Songline Way: traditional spiritual healing knowledge kept alive.
• Links to modern psychology, counselling and therapy taught.

• Reciprocity: Western systems of organising knowledge could be changed by learning from indigenous ways - ie. Oral story traditions. Extensive indigenous knowledge of land could be recorded and taught to children in multimedia forms. 
• Kinship: the world wide web opens great possibilities for indigenous and other peoples from around the world to share systems of knowing. These links can support and enrich ways of knowing of all cultures  especially those not of the dominant western mode.
• Songline Way: Knowledge encoded in song and dance can be recorded and used in multimedia teaching. Thus  traditions are keep alive and adapted to forms that the next generation will gravitate to.
• Listening: Indigenous expertise in visual and spatial frameworks of knowledge could develop exciting new ways of  presenting cross cultural knowledge  so new learning contexts could develop and different cultural learning skills be rewarded . Indigenous students thus learn easier and are not discriminated against in teaching methodologies and western students develop an appreciation for a  broader  range of skills. 

There are a number of artist colonies that are worth critical examination as possible models. The envisaged scope would include painting, music, song, dance, theatre, story telling and design (including architecture). 

Special attention would be given to new multi-media possibilities of experiencing the significance of songlines. Emphasis would be placed as much on experience as on production, recognizing that for the Aborigines art has a vital role in relation to celebration of the land -- rather than being a consumer product. 

• Reciprocity: indigenous and western artists can camp together and share knowledge of their crafts and experience of land, life, community and the arts.
•  Kinship: all aspects of the arts - music, song, dance, storytelling, theatre, storytelling, painting, architecture and design- are in kinship relationship.
• Songline Way: continuous recreation through dance, song, story and performance of cultural songlines is essential to all cultures as they seek to keep their spirit and Land alive.
• Listening: to songs of another culture and learning to dance to it's rhythm is a creative entrance to the heart of another's reality. This enriches knowledge of one's own culture.

This initiative could offer numerous possibilities for involvement of Aborigines, especially given the necessity to avoid sacred sites. The purpose would be to present, notably for young people, the kind of existential challenge sought and experienced by climbers. Features of these have been adapted to management education experiences (for example at Pecos River near Santa Fe). As with Outward Bound and white-water rafting, graded experiences could be offered, including survival courses. These could be associated with the developed format of vision quests. Semi-permanent desert bases could be established using features of desert pioneer camps (as in Israel).

• Reciprocity: indigenous knowledge and  western knowledge of survival  working together.
• Kinship:  respect for the sacredness of land, plants, animals and man's place in the eco- kinship system. 
• Songline Way:  learning to read the land by the information held in Songlines. Adapting this to include scientific knowledge of the land - creating survival songlines.
• Listening:  learning to listen to the Land and respond appropriately for survival.

The purpose of this initiative would be to offer a mix of three kinds of retreat: collective, based on shared facilities and residence; separate, based on units scattered over walking distances with optional shared facilities (notably at Crestone, Colorado); isolated (hermitage), based on units scattered over longer distances. 

People could move between the three experiences according to need and could remain there according to need and resources. The focus would be on experiencing solitude in relation to the land, although it would be for the individual to determine whether this was seen primarily as a spiritual experience or simply as an opportunity for relaxation, writing or the like. Any relationship to Aboriginal ngankaris could develop spontaneously.

• Reciprocity: mutual respect for different spiritual practices, joint honouring of sacredness of Land.
• Kinship: discovering and celebrating the kinship between all human beings and their common aspirations for strong spiritual expressions in their communities.
• Songline Way: exploration of sacredness of Land and the traditional sacred mapping in all cultures.
• Listening: to each other and the Land, "opening our hearts to share the spirit of the Land."

Reciprocity:

• Bringing together - western deep ecology, traditional  indigenous knowledge, environmental science, Chinese and European geomancy and other approaches to Land. 
• Equal balance of courses designed by indigenous people and those from a  western knowledge base. Research priorities to be set by both groups .
• Ethno-botany studies including setting. Apprentice schools where young Aboriginal people are  taught the traditional and western knowledge of  plant use.

• landcare and resource management 
• gura- camp design and architecture of the earth 
• Aboriginal and western cosmology interrelate
• cross-cultural human relations skills 
• cross-cultural economic management skills 
• development of low- resource lifestyles

• understanding of the deep belief structure of western  indigenous peoples - deep myths, Dreaming, Law and  kinship relationship to land 
• exploration of the 'imaginal reality' of the Dreaming   honouring this as a powerful dimension of reality that to be recreated in western academic traditions in philosophy of the imagination. 

• explore new learning ways, outside current academic  knowledge-learning from elders in ways they structure -  Inma Way.
• language teaching and study that honours traditional  languages and their sacred voice. 
• Language, the study of translation methods that   the beauty and depth of the original, from indigenous languages to English / French/German and back to the  indigenous languages. 

 As noted above, it is vital that this pattern of initiatives be presented through an integrating story meaningful in Aboriginal cultural terms. The pattern becomes viable only as an emanation of the story -- as a part of the dreaming. 

One widespread story that might be appropriate for this purpose is that of the Seven Sisters. Briefly, each initiative could be presented as one of the sisters. As sisters they are however naturally related and form a coherent whole. More challenging is that the sisters are pursued by the shape-shifter Wati Nyiru. Learning from this tale requires understanding of the ambiguous status of the pursuer and his uncontrollable desire to have intercourse with the sisters. Vigilance is required by the sisters to forestall him.  It might be possible to configure the role of western economic rationality, and its uncontrollable greed, as Wati Nyiru. The economic rationale constantly pursues initiatives on which it seeks to work its will and from which it hopes to derive selfish benefit. However, more positively, it does evoke a discipline from such initiatives -- hence the necessary vigilance they must practice together if they are to survive. It is the threat of being individually overcome that keeps them together. 

More daringly, it is even possible to consider dramatizing the role of Desert Tracks as Wati Nyiru. The two 4-WD vehicles are already painted appropriately to fit into the Ngintaka story. But, since the above initiatives would presumably be dispersed in a variety of locations, Desert Tracks might develop into the mode of transportation that keeps the initiatives linked both to the outside world and amongst themselves. But at the same time it would be the vehicle through which the dangers of economic greed would become manifest. It would carry people reflecting that preoccupation to some degree and seeking ways to convert the initiatives to economic ends. The ambiguity of the role would also be reflected in the fact that it carried an impulse that was desired. 

The journey along the learning trail from camp to camp,
is like the traditional stories of journeying along a songline or the stages on a pilgrimage.  The campfires are the fires left by the ancestors of each culture to light the way for future generations. Though we face new perils and must learn to dream new songs on this journey.

The language and metaphors to express this story need to be grown through the cross cultural dialogue that is taking place. The image will form and reform as the fluid medium of sand captures an  image before it is erased and reforms as the language flows. There are clues however, as all cultures hold their wisdom in stories.

Reciprocity: Traditional law -what you give you will get in return. Law of physics - every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Nganyinytja has likened the Seven Sister's story of lust and greed  leading to destruction of the desired, as similar to the uncontrollable  greed of western economic materialism destroying the Land. To  survive Wati Nyiru  the sisters he pursues must be continually vigilant.  To survive western materialism's assault on the world we must all   become vigilant. What we put out will return to us.

Kinship: the Seven Sisters work together to elude Wati Nyiru and successfully keep their family intact. The threat of being individually overcome as people and cultures by the spread of western materialism  must make us all work together.

Songline Way: to remember your way home you must like Hansel and Gretel or like Wati Ngintaka retrace your tracks, keeping the knowledge of your journey in your story and the song of your land. Be vigilant like the Sister's.

Listening: all traditional stories teach us to stay aware at levels deeper than  the ordinary. The eldest Sister can discriminate between Wati Nyiru and the shapes he assumes. European traditional stories teach us to listen and be aware of shapeshifters in nature - the wolf who tries to become Grandma to deceive little Red Riding Hood.
Listening with awareness and deep knowing is essential to humanity's new Story.

This name honours indigenous people and their relationship to the  Earth. Aboriginal knowledge deserves to be respected and valued as  high learning. The name links to the work  begun by Desert Tracks and Spirit of the Land.

We may need to envision or 'dream' new ways to allow this concept to grow and form.  It is essential that it be grown from the ground - up if it is to reflect the aims and objectives of the Aboriginal elders inspired to share and teach their way of knowing with the wider community. 

[Note: the need to change the way 'proposals', 'programmes' and 'projects' are envisaged and implemented is agreed . I feel this is a deep issue in the western aid and current government funding models that needs re envisaging  This idea needs more dialogue before I can attempt to 'translate' it]

[These are complex issues that require careful research, consultation , and inclusion of community development aims - if there are any. Again - whose aesthetic is to be considered, for what purpose?]