Remote Schools Celebrate New KLC Two-Way Science Program

Yakanarra and Djugerari Remote Community Schools outside Fitzroy Crossing came together this week to celebrate the successful implementation of the Kimberley Land Council’s Two-Way Science Program alongside Traditional Owners, the KLC and the Ngurrara Rangers.

The KLC’s Two-Way Science program, launched earlier this year, connects Indigenous Rangers with schools to deliver two-way science projects that are culturally responsive, utilise best-practice western science and deliver sound educational outcome. The program uses both classroom activities and learning on country.

For this project, the KLC worked alongside the Ngurrara Rangers and Traditional Owners to co-design a program about using camera traps to survey animals at important cultural and ecological sites

Over the past few months, the Ngurrara rangers Sumaya, Regina and Emily have been sharing their knowledge and expertise by supporting the students to head out on country, set camera traps and conduct a native and feral animal survey.

Back in the classroom, the students recorded native animals like emus, dingoes, eagles and kangaroos in the images. Many feral animals like cattle, pigs and cats were also caught on camera.

The students analysed a month worth of data from from the camera trap images to create scientific graphs and a large mural. This prompted many discussions about the impacts of feral animals on country, and in particular, the impact of cattle on nearby springs.

To acknowledge the huge amount of work that made this project a success at this week's celebration, the KLC surprised everyone with special two-way science t-shirts featuring a troopy - the vehicles used to transport the students from the classroom to the bush!

This project was a team effort and the KLC would like to thank the Ngurrara Ranger team, Djugerari and Yakanarra schools, the Department of Education and most importantly, the community members and elders who guided and fully supported this project.

More exciting two-way science projects are planned for both Djugerari and Yakanarra and other remote community schools in the Kimberley, so stay tuned!

Thank you to the National Indigenous Australians Agency indigenous.gov.au for funding the program.