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I want to explore the idea of "Ceremony" as pedagogy. This is to be a discussion around a literature review. As I read books, then I would like to dialogue with others over the things discovered in the books. I work with Central Desert children, from the Aboriginal nations: Warlpiri, Central Arrernte, Western Arrernte, Luritja, Pitjantjatjarra, Amadjerra, and others. As an educator, I suffer under the cloud that we seem to be going backwards in the task of providing an education for the children of our First Nations people.

I have had the privelege of being adopted into a Warlpiri family, and because of that adoption have been entrusted with very important knowledge. Part of that knowledge is the process of education that was a part of the lives of Warlpiri people for a very many generations. Taken to ceremony, the Kindergarten to University process, I was exposed to some enormously profound ways of passing essential knowledge from one generation to the next.

The content of ceremony is the province of the Old People. It is not my place to discuss such matters. However, the process of ceremony seems to me to be the most profound method of educating others ever devised by mankind. Many of our Old People are passing on, and they are taking with them important knowledge that I believe that we are the poorer for not imbibing. Part of that knowledge is the knowledge how to educate Aboriginal people in a way that makes them feel at home in the schooling environment.

So, I want to begin exploring some questions:

What does the pedagogy called "ceremony"look like?

How has it been able to transfer such profound knowledge from generation to generation, over thousands of years, amongst Central Desert people?

Are there things that we can learn as educators of Central Desert Aboriginal children from ceremony? Can we apply them in a school context?

Are there things that could be applied to urban Indigenous contexts?

Are there pedagogical truths that non-Indigenous schools could learn from ceremony?

Are these the right questions, or are there more strategic questions that need to be asked?

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