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For close to 40 years John Greatorex has worked with Yolŋu people in North East Arnhem Land. In this reflective chapter, John discusses the experiences that have shaped his thinking as an educator while working on Galiwin’ku at Elcho Island, in the Yolŋu Studies program at Charles Darwin University and collaborating with a small Yolŋu township to establish and then teach at Mapuru, a small independent school. This chapter considers ways in which communities can develop better commercial understandings so that they can handle mainstream transactions while at the same time asserting teaching and learning in their own languages and on their own country.

Review for: Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet, by Maria Nugent Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2005, xiv+256pp, ISBN 1741145759.

The notion of social capital has had wide currency in mainstream social policy debate in recent years, with commonly used definitions emphasising three factors: norms, networks and trust. Yolngu Aboriginal people have their own perspectives on norms, networks and trust relationships. This article uses concepts from Yolngu philosophy to explore these perspectives in three contexts: at the former mission settlements, at homeland centres, and among “long-grassers” in Darwin. The persistence of the components of social capital at different levels in particular contexts shotild be seen by government policy makers as an opportunity to engage in a social development dialogue with Yolngu, aimed at identifying the specific contexts in which Yolngu social capital can be maximised.