Rurrawiliny & Rod presented Knowledge Water at this year’s Developing Northern Australia conference. It was great to be so well received and thank you to the organisers. Rurrawiliny introduced us and outlined her family’s long history of aspirations to empowerment. Her father, Dula Ngurruwutthun, a ceremonial specialist and leader, painted park to the Barunga statement. The whale tail at the foundation of the artwork has many layers that only time can reveal. Dula was a drive

There are many elements progressing in the knowledge water project. In preparation for both the big fencing job and also building material production from local timbers we began work on an anti-buffalo coral - a couple of octagons to protect the new banana plantation. We are operating on a shoestring and good will until the funding for the construction is released and so we have to accept waiting for favours just a little longer. Among other things outside our control the tra

We are close to the end of our crowd campaign and we are very excited about developments. MEP have offered to buy the materials for the fencing so we can use the crowd funds for Yolngu wages to keep things moving before we start building. This is really important for viability of school which is still on a funding knife edge. After the fence we will continue to work with MEP and start producing materials for the factory build which should start in July/August. We are marking

Much achieved in this world is done by networks of people with capacity to co-create. Perhaps they come together payed within some corporate structure but networks also form more organically as disparate communities. The network that is knowledge water, although unique, can be replicated with appropriate attention to detail. Here are a few key ingredients. Knowledge Water is the coming together of three previous discrete networks. This has made the development not only possib

from first contact the Yolngu elders were very aware that the mixing of our cultures would happen at the interface of our languages and this

This is the first of many blogs that will explore the depths of the Knowledge Water enterprise. I draft these ideas but what are their sources? Who owns them as they flow though this author’s mind and the keyboard to you? Are they now yours? The natural resources, the means of production and intellectual property of the branding of Knowledge Water will be owned by the traditional owners. That is simple. These are legal facts. But as with many things the whole is greater than