In South Australia’s far north-west, across the vast and arid Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, water has always been understood as more than a resource. Water is central to APY culture, movement across Country, and the interconnected system of APY life.
Today, it is also supplied to communities by SA Water through complex groundwater systems, treatment infrastructure and pipelines, as an essential service in one of the driest inhabited regions in the world.
Bringing these two knowledge systems together is at the heart of SA Water’s Anangu Water Wisdom program, an education initiative co-designed with Elders, schools and community partners to improve water literacy while strengthening cultural understanding.
Delivered mainly to primary school classes across the APY Lands, the program blends Traditional Knowledge with modern learning tools to help young people understand where their water comes from, how it is managed, and why caring for it matters.
Water literacy is a priority for SA Water across the state, but the challenge is particularly acute in the APY Lands. Communities rely almost entirely on groundwater bores, often drilled between 30 and 110 metres below ground level, with up to 10 bores supplying each community depending on size and demand.
Water is stored, treated and disinfected locally before being delivered to homes, schools and community facilities.
“In the APY Lands, water security is an ongoing challenge,” said SA Water Education Specialist Jade Cornish. “The region is one of the driest in the world, and understanding both the limits of the resource and the systems that support it is critical.”
Through the program, SA Water has learned that while many students can identify visible infrastructure, such as bore huts and tanks, the story of the groundwater sources and availability of water is not always well understood.
“Some students didn’t know their water comes from deep underground, despite knowing where all the local bore huts and assets are located, so we’re able to demystify some of the infrastructure in community,” Cornish said.
Water wastage presents additional challenges in remote settings. Animals such as camels, donkeys and horses can damage pipes or turn on taps, while leaks may go unreported. Improving water literacy helps communities better understand these risks and respond to them.
“When the community understands the challenges for our source water, and the complex systems and processes involved beyond their taps and our pipes, we can build trust and value for this essential service,” Cornish said.
From its inception, Anangu Water Wisdom was designed as a two-way learning program, one that respected that Traditional Knowledge cannot be taught by a water utility, but must be shared by Anangu educators and Elders themselves.
“Our goal from the start was to incorporate Traditional Knowledge with a two-way learning approach,” Cornish said.
“It’s not our place to teach Traditional Knowledge, so we’ve included prompts and suggested questions for Anangu educators in our teaching resource.”
The program draws on Aboriginal academic and author Tyson Yunkaporta’s ‘8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning’ framework, which involves narrative-driven learning, visualised learning processes and connectedness to community among other pedagogical techniques.
Developed in collaboration with the Department for Education and experienced teachers, the program creates space for local stories, places and perspectives to shape learning, rather than imposing a fixed curriculum.
When SA Water visits schools, students are invited not only to tour water treatment facilities, but to also show educators places that are significant to their water stories.
“That allows the curriculum to have more personal insights for the students,” Cornish said.
“We’ve been lucky to learn from students, Elders and educators about life, history and culture in the APY Lands.”
One of the most distinctive elements of Anangu Water Wisdom is its use of immersive technology to support place-based learning. SA Water has developed virtual reality (VR) tours for each participating community, showcasing local water treatment infrastructure and, where permitted, culturally significant water sites, such as rock holes.
“We’ve built a virtual reality tour of each community, complete with insights into local water treatment plants and tanks, and images of any rockholes or water sites we’ve been permitted to photograph,” Cornish said.
The VR platform is deliberately flexible. Teachers can upload students’ work in a range of formats – artwork, music, videos or written reflections – allowing learning to be expressed in culturally appropriate ways.This approach culminates in a community action project, in
which students share their work with parents and other community members.
“One example of this saw a class from Fregon Anangu School working with an artist in residence to create water-themed artwork. This followed a camp to a significant site, learning from Elders about sourcing water from tree roots,” Cornish said.
Genuine co-design has been central to Anangu Water Wisdom’s development. Rather than a single consultation phase, it has involved ongoing conversations, trialling different approaches, and learning from feedback.
“It’s been a gradual process of talking with educators, Department for Education staff, and learning from Elders and community members,” Cornish said.
The program’s four modules are introduced through short videos that incorporate both Western scientific perspectives and Traditional Owner insights. Traditional Owners from Yunyarinyi (Kenmore Park) and Indulkana shared knowledge about important water sites, tools, stories and songlines, ensuring cultural authority remains with the community.
“A core message in the program is about caring for community and Country,” Cornish said. “The first three modules explain how we use water, where it comes from, and how it’s treated. That gives context for the final module, ‘Water for the future’, which is about water security and water-saving strategies.”
At its core, Anangu Water Wisdom recognises that sustainable water management is not just a technical challenge, but a cultural and educational one. By bringing Traditional Knowledge and modern learning tools together, the program offers a model for how water utilities can work respectfully with communities to build understanding, resilience and care for Country for generations to come.
This article was first published in AWA’s Current magazine. Take a look at the edition on Indigo.