The Wiltja Story

Synopsis

The Wiltja Program at Woodville High School provides Anangu students with access to urban schooling.

The Anangu students board at the Wiltja Residence during term and head home to their communities for holidays.

Themes in this story

Connectedness
School and community partnerships
Optimism
Resilience

Identity

When young people have positive conceptions of themselves both as Indigenous people and as students, then commitment to and performance at school will be more likely outcomes than when there are excessive contradictions or tensions between the various aspects of self (Purdie et al 2000, Positive Self-Identity for Indigenous Students and Its Relationship to School Outcomes: Final Report, Department of Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, Canberra, p. ix, cited in CommunityMatters, page 16).

Background to the school

Woodville High School is a multicultural high school of approximately 800 students in the western suburbs of Adelaide.

The Wiltja program is the urban annexe of secondary programs being offered by schools in the tri-state area across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Anangu speak a range of dialects that are collectively called Western Desert languages.

Wiltja is an Anangu word for shelter or home.