About the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre

The Living Kaurna Cultural Centre is located at Warriparinga and offers Aboriginal and environmental education programs, events and performances. The venue is also available to hire for meetings, training days, events and workshops.

Warriparinga is an important cultural heritage site where Aboriginal and early European heritage sit side by side. For the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains, this site is a traditional ceremonial meeting place still used today. Warriparinga is an important part of the Tjilbruke Dreaming.

The Living Kaurna Cultural Centre was built in 2001 as a result of the work between the Kaurna community and the City of Marion, attracting Commonwealth Centenary of Federation Funding of this purpose.

Council is currently working with the Kaurna Community towards co-management of the Centre over five years - working towards Kaurna community governance of the Centre.

"Yaintya trrukungka ngadlu, Kaurna miyurna, ngadluku pirrku yarta-unangku warrapanthi. Ngadlu kumangka tuwilila manku-mankurrinthi Munaintya purruti-apiti purtititya."

In this centre we, Kaurna people, tell our stories from the land. We assemble together in the spirit in order to celebrate renewal of the Dreaming.

Warriparinga Way (Off Sturt Road), Bedford Park SA 5042

Opening hours are Monday to Friday 10.00 am to 4.00 pm (closed public holidays).

Please note the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre is closed from the Thursday 24 December 2021 and will reopen Monday 10 January 2022.

Visitors from the wider community and tourists are welcome to come and learn about Kaurna culture and share in the special environment of peace that exists at Warriparinga.

All visitors are invited here in a spirit of humanity, and are asked to be respectful when they visit the Centre.

The Centre is a learning place for Kaurna meyunna (Kaurna people) and future generations, to remember and renew Kaurna cultural and spiritual practices, care for country, link to Dreaming stories, perform ongoing ceremony and heal through cultural practices.

The Centre is a place where respect and recognition of Kaurna culture is developed, the wider community come to learn about Kaurna and other Aboriginal cultures, the history of the site (both Kaurna and early settlement) is celebrated and community ties between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are strengthened through sharing our cultural differences and similarities.

The State Heritage listed Fairford House with original coach-house, gardens and remaining vineyards sits alongside Living Kaurna Cultural Centre and provides a link with the early years of European settlement.

Fairford House has a boardroom styled meeting room that seats up to 14 people comfortably as well as an art room for workshops.

"Ngadlu Kaurna meyunna, kumarta yaitya meyunna, pinde meyunna kuma, banba-banbalyarnendi yerra tampirendi. Ngadlu yaitya meyunna, pinde meyunna banba-banbalyarnendi yerra tampirendi, nguya nguya wondatitya. Nepungga ngadlu marra yunggondi. Tindogadlangga ngadlu paltitya taikurringga bilyorningga budnandi.

We Kaurna people and other Indigenous peoples meet together here and recognise each other. We Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people meet together in order to lay aside the wrongs of the past, and recognise each other. We give our hand in friendship. We come together in peace for the palti (dance/ceremony), under the sun."

For the Kaurna people who initiated this project, 'conciliation' is a more appropriate term that 'reconciliation'.

Conciliation is a process which involves Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people walking together for the first time as genuinely equal partners in a shared future.

If you would like to find out more about reconciliation, the Reconciliation Australia website or the ANTaR website (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) are good places to start.

Marion Council has appointed Southern Cultural Immersion to manage the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre on its behalf. The Kaurna owned and operated business will also manage the adjacent Fairford House and Coach House.

Southern Cultural Immersion are an Adelaide-based company owned and run by Kaurna man Corey Turner. They specialise in cultural tours, training, artworks, traditional ceremonies and engagement with Aboriginal culture. They will continue to provide Aboriginal education and environmental programs and take bookings for venue hire, cultural tours and events.

Council made the decision to outsource management of the centre to a Kaurna business as it will be best placed to deliver the service.

Services are expected to continue as previously, including:

• cultural tours for schools and community groups
• room bookings for meetings
• events in the grounds of Warriparinga

Contact the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre on
T: 8357 5900
E: enquiry@southernculturalimmersion.com.au
W: southernculturalimmersion.com.au