Achieving our Vision…
Warren Performing Arts and Language Place (Warraan Widji Arts) is a bespoke organisation which facilitates meaningful and purposeful integration of Wayilwan language with local stories and artistic creativity to empower our youth and community.
Warraan Widji Arts strengthens the self determination of our people facilitating a departure from cultural misappropriation by non-Aboriginal controlled institutions and organisations.
Transformative Change…
Warraan Widji Arts defines transformative change as change which alters the way we do things for the empowerment of our youth and community.
It’s about winanga-li (to listen, gain knowledge and understand) to make positive change (see Home Page - Dharmay-gal Winanga-li)
Cultural awareness note
WWA defines cultural identity as our local community’s shared memory and collective knowledge, understandings, values and skills, both old and new, which provide a sense of belonging.
Approaches to Achieve our Vision
Strengths-based and place-based approaches to knowledge sharing and learning are examples of evidence-based practice and a transformative world view.
They are examples of bottom-up approaches to change, rather than a top-down approaches to change and support a bespoke organisational framework.
Learn More:
Stronger Smarter Approach (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2017).
Literature in the field which supports the contextual approaches listed above include but are not limited to:
Brown, P. (2019). Understanding how deficit discourses work against implementing participatory approaches in Australian Indigenous policy. The Australian Journal of Social Issues, 54(4), 401-417. Sydney: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Burgess, C., Tennent, C., Vass, G., Guenther, J., Lowe, K. & Moodie, N. (2019). A systemic review of pedagogies that support, engage and improve the educational outcomes of Aboriginal students. The Australian Educational Researcher 46(2), 297-318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00315-5
Harrison, N. & Skrebneva, I. (2019) Country as pedagogical: enacting an Australian foundation for culturally responsive pedagogy. Journal of Curriculum Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1641843