This October, we’re proud to be supporting Country as Teacher with $4,000 as part of our Charitable Giving program.
Country as Teacher is a First Nations-led not-for-profit operating on unceded Bundjalung Jogun (Country) in northern New South Wales. Its work is guided by three values: Respect, Responsibility and Reciprocity. In practice that means honouring Country and culture, carrying the obligation to care for both, and giving back in balance with what Country gives us.
That’s what this partnership is about. Country as Teacher runs cultural camps where Bundjalung Elders and cultural experts pass knowledge on to the next generation. Participants learn language, weaving, bush tucker, tool making and caring for Country, the same way that knowledge has been shared for thousands of years: on Country, in community, and hands-on.
Where your support goes
If you’d like to support Country as Teacher on top of our monthly donation, you can find out more about their work and how to get involved at countryasteacher.org.
Our $5,000 pledge is split across three camps:
- First Nations Youth Camp: This sends 5–10 students to an annual five-day cultural immersion camp. The camp has played a big part in helping First Nations students feel strong in their culture and identity, through workshops in weaving, language, bush tucker, tool making and caring for Country.
- First Nations Men’s Camp: This sends 5 men to an annual camp of 3–4 days focused on language, culture, identity and caring for Country.
- First Nations Women’s Camp: This sends 5 women to an annual Weaving Waterways Camp. There they share culture, revive traditional weaving practices, plant native trees and help rehabilitate local waterways.
The Partnership
What we love about these camps is that cultural strength and environmental care aren’t treated as two separate things. At a Weaving Waterways Camp, the same afternoon might include learning a traditional weaving technique and planting native trees along a creek bank. Caring for Country is part of the culture itself, and every camp leaves both the people and the land a little stronger.
Learning on Country, Firsthand
Our team has spent time on Country with Delta Kay on one of her Explore Byron Bay tours. Delta is an Arakwal Bundjalung woman, well known and respected as an Arakwal Elder in the Byron Shire, whose ancestors have lived around Byron Bay for thousands of years. Walking with her, we heard stories of the land, picked up a little Bundjalung language, and learnt about bush tucker, bush medicine and how her people have cared for this Country for generations. We also heard about the harder parts of the story: the impact of settlement and displacement on her people, and her family’s long road to Native Title.
We came away with a much deeper understanding of the Country our business sits alongside, and a real sense of how much there is to learn from the people who have cared for it the longest. That experience is a big part of why Country as Teacher felt like such a natural fit. It’s the same knowledge, shared on the same Bundjalung Country, and now passed on to the next generation of young people, men and women.
Why Country as Teacher?
Our mission at Seed & Sprout has always centred on doing less harm and more good, for people and planet alike. After our time with Delta, we were reminded that First Nations communities have been caring for this land sustainably for thousands of years, and that much of that knowledge lives with Elders and is passed on in person, on Country. Supporting the people keeping that knowledge alive, and making sure it reaches the next generation, felt like one of the most meaningful things we could do.
The Impact
Each place at a camp is a young person who comes home feeling stronger in who they are, or a man or woman reconnecting with language and culture, or a stretch of waterway that’s healthier than it was before. Those ripple out into families, schools and communities long after the camp ends.
If you’d like to learn more about the work Country as Teacher does, we’d love for you to check it out.
