Kungan Kaldowinyeri: Listening to Creation
This last semester Uniting College for Leadership and Theology in South Australia has run a second immersive unit taking students on Country, this time led by Uncle Ken Sumner and Rosemary Dewerse
November 4, 2025
“If you want to be reconciled to me, you have to be reconciled to Country first [for] I am Ruwangk-il, of the soil.” - Uncle Ken Sumner
“Stitch by stitch, circle by circle. Weaving is like the creation of life, all things are connected." - Aunty Ellen Trevorrow
This last semester Uniting College for Leadership and Theology (UCLT), a member college of the University of Divinity, has run a unit titled Kungan Kaldowinyeri. 'Kungan' in the language of Kukabrak Ngarrindjeri from the south-east coast of South Australia means “to listen,” while 'Kaldowinyeri' is their entire worldview catching up the whole of creation.
The goal of the unit is to inspire expansions, particularly in Second/settler/migrant Peoples’ understanding of who God is and what it means to be human.
Uncle Ken Sumner, State Development Officer for the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress in South Australia led this unit with Dr Rosemary Dewerse. It has included time spent in guided resource interaction, asynchronous discussions, live online sessions, and a four-day immersion on the Kurangk (Coorong).
"We learned to weave Kaldowinyeri with our hands, heard the Ngarrindjeri history of fringe camps, Raukkan and the Point McLeay mission, breathed with the mighty southern ocean, paused on the shores of Mungkuli (Lake Alexandrina) and the Kurangk, smelt the wind, watched pelicans soar, yarned under the night sky..."
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We were asking ‘Who is Creator God?’ and ‘What therefore does it mean to be human?”, exploring the invitations to expansions in our understanding and practice by attending to ancient wisdom, stories of colonial impact and of regenerative work in human and ecological communities, and the perspectives, poetry, music, art and personal experiences of Aboriginal leaders.
Mikenzie Ling, a Wiradjuri woman and First Peoples Strategy and Engagement Consultant in the Synod of NSW/ACT, presented one evening on her excellent Masters’ thesis, “Is Land My Mother?”
Our immersion was hosted by Uncle Ken and Ngarrindjeri leaders Uncle Clyde Rigney and Tim Hartman, as well as Kenny Jnr, Craig, Natasha, and Carina Sumner.
We tasted welcome to Yarluwe-Ruwe (Sea-Country) in a smoking ceremony, learned to weave Kaldowinyeri with our hands, heard the Ngarrindjeri history of fringe camps, Raukkan and the Point McLeay mission, visited significant environmental restoration projects, breathed with the mighty southern ocean, paused on the shores of Mungkuli (Lake Alexandrina) and the Kurangk, smelt the wind, watched pelicans soar, yarned under the night sky, and were gifted with art.
Throughout we have been growing skill in six-sense listening to our human and more than human kin.
Participants have found the experience “life-changing.”
In 2026 UCLT will offer its two Indigenous units again. “Yarta Wandatha: The Land is Speaking the People are Speaking” led by Rev Dr Aunty Denise Champion in Semester 1 focuses on the impact of Christian mission in these lands now called Australia, and wrestles with redefining “ethical ministry” for today, taught by Yarta (Country) and Adnyamathanha leaders. Kungan Kaldowinyeri is taught in Semester 2. You are most welcome to join us!
For information, including dates and costs, contact info@unitingcollege.edu.au. Places are limited.
By Dr Rosemary Dewerse, Academic Dean and Research Coordinator at Uniting College for Leadership and Theology (UCLT) in South Australia
Read our story on the Semester 1 unit, Yarta Wandatha, from May 2025.
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