Ripples of Change: Cultural Storytelling Across Generations at Western Cape College  

Location:  Weipa/Napranum, on the Traditional Lands of the Alngith, Kugu Peoples, Western Cape York.

Ripples of Change series - Season 2: Our Waters, Our Futures
Across Western Cape York, communities are deepening their relationship with Country and technology, learning, leading, and shaping new futures together. Season Two of Caring for Country: Growing Conservation Through Digital Literacy builds on the foundations of the first, flowing forward with new stories of connection, innovation, and care for water, land, and people.


IMAGE: Students from Western Cape College share their digital interpretation of the story shared by Uncle Herbert during the Season 2 Masterclass.

People: Confidence in Sharing Culture in New Ways

Indigital first met Wathayn/Alngith Traditional Owner Uncle Herbert Liddy at the Season One Masterclass, where he was introduced to digital storytelling tools for the first time. Soon after, Uncle Herbert joined the Teach Together workshop at the PCYC in Napranum as a cultural storyteller, sharing the story of Kambal the Crocodile and Pa’u the Blue Tongue Lizard.


Around him, students listened, laughed, and began to reimagine the story through Paint 3D, weaving culture and technology together in ways that sparked excitement and belonging. Through this experience, Uncle Herbert began finding new ways to share his stories, showing how culture and technology can work side by side, never replacing one another, to keep knowledge, language and lore strong for generations to come.


“Well, sitting down, learning this, what you're gonna teach us with this new technology It's kind of different, you know, It's new to us because we never been taught these things in our days. Now (today's) generation, it's all kind of different from what we've been taught, you know, but it's good we share our culture through this way so everyone can see that we still got our culture, you know, it’s alive. You know, it's been passed on from generation to generation. So, I would like to keep carrying on doing all these, you know, cultural way and all these cultural stuff, telling our stories. It will help us to protect our country, protect our sacred sites” Wathayn/Alngith Traditional Owner Uncle Herbert Liddy

Community: Shared Learning and Intergenerational Leadership

continued sharing his knowledge with Western Cape College, partnering with teachers to bring his story into the classroom. His storytelling inspired the school’s science and technology team to weave culture into the classroom. The students transformed his narrative into an interactive cultural landscape using Minecraft Education Edition, a project that later placed second in a regional award.


When the Indigital team returned to deliver the Season 2 Weipa/Napranum Masterclass, the students presented their Minecraft world back to the community. Uncle Herbert’s pride and ownership were clear as he watched his story, shared just a year before, brought to life through the imagination and skill of the students.

IMAGE:  Uncle Herbert, with two students from Western Cape College presenting their work in Minecraft.

 

This moment became a celebration of true collaboration and intergenerational knowledge sharing, Elders, teachers, and students learning together, guided by story and connected through technology. What began as an exchange of knowledge has become much more: confidence growing, capability emerging, and the first signs of community-led, culturally grounded digital learning taking shape on Country and in the classroom.

System: Shifting Education and Strengthening Cultural Continuity
Uncle Herbert’s story has now become part of the school curriculum, a living thread weaving Indigenous knowledge and digital learning together, continuing to grow without external facilitation. This reflects a significant shift in how the school is embedding cultural knowledge as part of their science and technology teaching.

VIDEO: Click on the video to hear Vide from Western Cape College share their experience at Western Cape College following Season One.

This collaboration showed what can happen when cultural storytelling is given space to grow, find its place within local schools and live on through community, once confidence and capability are nurtured. It showed how technology can carry stories between generations, giving students new ways to learn from Elders while keeping Culture and Country at the heart of learning and community aspirations.

At Western Cape College, that ripple continues to widen. In addition to Season One’s learnings, teachers are now exploring how Season Two’s introduction to conservation technologies, like environmental DNA (eDNA) and LiDAR, can become part of classroom learning. The vision is to help students, many from Napranum and Mapoon, start building the skills they’ll need for future Ranger roles in their own communities.

VIDEO: Click on the video to hear Uncle Herbert share why his involvement is important to him and the broader community and how Season 2 is leading to opportunities for young people in future career opportunities on Country.

It’s another step in strengthening the connection between education, conservation, and community leadership through culture and connection to Country.