Real inclusion doesn’t live in policy documents. It's woven through stories, grown through connection, and practiced in the art of deep listening – as participants of Yula-Punaal’s immersive retreat discovered.
Maroongmarabanbiin parainura, ngarayela ngaromangbaran, ngarala marai yiriyiri [ngeyranba].
Show respect to the land, elders and ancestors.
Miromala puliingeyranba kaiyuta, wiyaliliin, ngarayeliliin yantiintowa matitowa.
Keep our languages alive, keep talking, sharing and believing.
This passage, in the language of the Awabakal people, sets the tone for Yula-Punaal Centre’s on-Country retreat, tailored to UNSW staff and students.
“Remembering and understanding Aboriginal ties to the land and to Aboriginal lore is a very important part of our people’s healing process – and it’s all a part of the Yula-Punaal foundations,” explains Tammy Wright, Co-founder of the education and healing centre.
“Our programs nurture Aboriginal spirituality and empower people through both traditional and contemporary healing and cultural practices.”
For the past two years, Tammy’s guidance and Yula-Punaal’s immersive programs have been helping staff and students across UNSW to connect to Country – and each other.
At the Yula-Punaal Centre, nestled at the foot of the Wattagan Mountains on Awabakal country, the connection to nature is palpable. Birdsong and the gentle sighs of the majestic gum trees are the only sounds greeting you as you arrive. It’s a special place, where Tammy rediscovered her calling.
“Years of teaching broke my spirit. But this place brought me back,” she shares.
Tammy founded the independent, Aboriginal-owned Yula-Punaal over 20 years ago to help people connect to themselves and to Country through Indigenous culture and heritage. Today, the centre offers on-country retreats, cultural workshops and leadership camps for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Indigenous knowledges have been fundamental to life in Australia for countless generations and are at the heart of UNSW’s Progress for All strategy, Yula-Punaal’s on-country experiences provide a unique opportunity to connect with and learn about Indigenous perspectives and practices – and bring these back to campus.
“ Being on Country, immersed in Aboriginal ways of knowing being and doing, shifts our sense of self and understanding on a much deeper level ,” explains Rebecca Harcourt, Program Manager, Indigenous Business Education at UNSW Business School.
This commitment to incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing into our work demonstrates UNSW’s aspiration to achieve greater impact informed by knowledge and history.
Growing up learning alongside different Aboriginal Clans and Communities, Rebecca has been drawing on Aboriginal ways of being for as long as she can remember.
And for the past 16 years, Rebecca has been advocating for UNSW Indigenous students, and graduates, collaborating and walking alongside Indigenous entreprenurs, community leaders locally regionally and internationally Through the years, she’s learned that deep listening and sitting still within complexities is critical to progress.
“We all have our different unique & complex journeys. It’s important that we invest time in building genuine relationships, sit with our own discomfort and uncertainties and listen,” she shares.
“When we can sit with our own vulnerabilties we draw on a deeper collective strength, creating opportunities for us to respond together to complex challenges of our time, understanding the impact of our actions now for future generations.
Yula-Punaal’s programs offer an authentic way to introduce people to Indigenous culture and spirituality – and open them up to new perspectives. For UNSW, this genuine engagement with Indigenous knowledge is essential to who we want to be, how we want to work and achieving our goals.
“You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s why programs like these are important."
"They bring together people from all walks of life across the university with Community, and we share and connect on a deeper level and when we do, we uncover our commonalities and strengthen our bonds,” Rebecca explains.
At Yula-Punaal, UNSW staff and students learnt the traditional art of weaving in the shade of a gum tree, letting stories slowly unfold around them. Stories that carry truths, history and generations-long connections. It’s a gentle, slow process unrestrained by constructs like time.
When you’re on Country, in the heat of the summer sun, you understand two things quickly:
Taking the time to get to know others, build relationships and understand more deeply are critical to creating a more equitable, diverse and inclusive society.
And for people in the corporate world, it helps develop leaders who understand that truly valuable progress can’t be rushed through a Teams meeting.
“None of us really know anyone else’s story, until we really sit with them and listen,” Rebecca says.
“This takes time. But when we do it well, we can create trust and a more united and collaborative culture, uncover new, better ways of doing things and empower generations to foster a more equitable and sustainable society.”
Tammy and her team have created a generous and safe space for people to be present and connect with themselves at Yula-Punaal.
“Time slows here. Country is everywhere. It’s a chance to be off our phones and laptops and just be,” says Rebecca.
The retreat starts with a smoke ceremony and water blessing, sacred Aboriginal practices of spiritual cleansing. After the ceremony, the shift in energy is tangible: people shed the restraints of a busy life and create space for a different way of being.
“When you spend the night out here during a retreat and can see the sun set and rise on Country, you connect with yourself through the spirit world,” Tammy says.
“You can see a kookaburra, sitting on the tree and it will come down and sit down in front of you. That's someone connecting themselves through the spirit world."
One of the first activities Tammy likes to do is have a ‘yarn with a yarn’. Sitting in a circle, each participant shares something about themselves while holding a ball of yarn. They throw it across the room to the next person, while holding onto a piece of the string.
“By the end of the practice, we’ve woven a web of stories that connects us all. And when we drop the yarn, it creates a map that tells these stories,” Tammy explains.
Later, local school kids share ancient stories through traditional dance, and Tammy teaches participants about the healing properties of lemon myrtle and how to turn it into a soothing body scrub and other medicinal uses.
“Mother earth has the power to heal," Tammy says, "She provides us with everything. The trees that attract birds and animals, the water that sustains us. Punaal (the sun) is hot today. There's a reason she's shining, because tomorrow she won't be out as much. There's a beauty in that. You have to look beyond the harshness to find that beauty. That's how you have to look at life."
Being immersed in these activities is a different kind of knowing – one gained through practice and shared experience, not textbooks or lectures.
It’s this kind of knowing that will allow staff at UNSW to honour Indigenous perspectives and make them an integral part of social and economic progress.
Retreats like Yula-Punaal can create a genuine shift in how people move through the world. They teach that progress happens in circles, not straight lines. That deep listening and understanding creates more meaningful change than quick answers ever could.
The seeds planted on Country take root in homes, classrooms and boardrooms. Over time and with care, they grow into real, meaningful change.
Maroongmarabanbiin parainura, ngarayela ngaromangbaran, ngarala marai yiriyiri [ngeyranba].
Show respect to the land, elders and ancestors.
Miromala puliingeyranba kaiyuta, wiyaliliin, ngarayeliliin yantiintowa matitowa.
Keep our languages alive, keep talking, sharing and believing.