The intersections of education, sport and culture at Papunya: The need for field-based research in remote inland Australia

This paper explores the operation of Australian (Rules) Football in the remote Aboriginal community of Papunya in the Northern Territory (NT). The playing and organisation of football by and for the Anangu (i.e. Australian Aboriginal) peoples of Central Australia constitutes an important expression of Aboriginal sovereignty in the context of post-NT Intervention politics. Australian (Rules) Football, along with traditional 'men's ceremonial business' remains one of few areas of social life where Anangu exercise decision-making authority over their own lives and that of their community in ways that might be said to be self-determining and consistent with United Nations (UN) declaration definitions. Football is, therefore, an important realm in which young men (Wati) learn from male Elders (Tjilpi). This paper explores Australian Football as it is played on Luritja country as a realm of Anangu learning and asks why formal education systems fail to recognise football played On Country as a valid forum of learning.