Wednesday 10 June

Welcome to Arrernte Country

Busses and Toyotas will shuttle participants from town and the Convention Centre to OPBG.

9.30 am: Gather at the Gazebo in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden for the Welcome to Country by Arrernte Elder, pioneer of Indigenous language maintenance in broadcasting, passionate language teacher and educator Rosie Kumalie Riley Kngwarraye.

Cultural Tour

10 am: Go on walking tour of the gardens, led by Eastern Arrernte Elder, linguist, educator, author and ecologist Veronica Perrurle Dobson (with Camille Dobson). Perrurla will talk about the Caterpillar Dreaming that runs through the Gardens, about some threatened plant species the Gardens helped her to rescue, and about the multispecies ecologies of Mparntwe.

Busses and Toyotas will shuttle participants from OPBG to the Convention Centre for registration, morning tea, and the Keynote, between all three conference venues, and then back to OPBG for the reception.

Welcome Reception

5.30 for 6pm: Celebrate the beginning of the conference with delectable nibbles, sloshable drinks, excellent tunes, open fires, brilliant company, wallabies on the surrounding outcrops and all that under the milky way at Olive Pink Botanic Garden. Music by local DJs and Honkytonk Disco

Olive Pink Botanic Garden

The Australian Arid Regions Native Flora Reserve, now the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, was founded in 1956 by ANTHROPOLOGIST Olive Muriel Pink, the Garden’s first Curator. She lived in the Garden from 1956 until her death in 1975 aged 91.

Thursday 11 June

Market Day all day @ Convention Centre Foyer

Experience some local flavour with stalls by:

‍ALEC Arid Lands Environment Centre
‍Desart
‍Ikuntji Artists
‍ Inkwareny Artists
Red Kangaroo Books
Purple House Bush Balm
Warlukurlangu Artists
‍and more

Friday 12 June

Busses and Toyotas will ferry everyone from OPBG, CC, and DPK to Araluen for the PLENARY and Afternoon Tea, followed by the…

Closing Ceremony

4-5.15 pm on Araluen’s Circus Lawns the closing ceremony will include central Australian Indigenous dance performances and conclude with an Arrernte Smoking Ceremony to send everybody on their way cleansed by Country.

Busses and Toyotas will ferry participants from Araluen to Desert Park (with enough time to catch the sunset on the beautiful Desert Park grounds with full view of Alhekulyele/Mt Gillen before dinner), and from Desert Park to town.

Conference Dinner - surrounded by bilbies, echidnas, malas and more

Desert Park: Pre-dinner speaker: Rayleen Brown, owner and founder of Kungkas Can Cook (2024 Best Indigenous Bushfood and Botanicals Business in the Northern Territory, Australia), will talk about Kungkas and the dinner to be served.