We're kicking off season six from the beating heart of the country. Jessica Staines recorded this episode at Uluru with two Koori Curriculum team members, Shan Morrison and Kelly Quick, after a few days of on-the-ground research for next year's retreat on Anangu Country. That's the fourth retreat, and it'll bring 40 educators from all over Australia to the Red Centre. 

Picture a 4:30 am wake-up, a pitch-black bus, and a huge shadow slowly rising out of the flat landscape until Uluru is just there. Then the weather turned. Desert hail at a bus stop had even the locals stunned. There were camels, a spot of line dancing, and a blessed cancelled tour that turned into an unplanned breakfast buffet.

Grab a cuppa for this one. It's warm and raw, there are some giggles, and it's exactly the yarn educators need right now.

Jess, Shan and Kelly took to Brisbane for the TIPIAC x Riley Callie Resources National First Nations Education Conference, and this episode is their yarn about it. They went as a team, with Jess presenting and Shan hoping for a moment with Anita Heiss at her book signing. Kelly signed up the second Jess mentioned that Briggs was playing Crowbar that night.

What followed was matching double denim, a two-storey country bar full of Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson, a "Boot Scootin' Boogie" line dance (the only one Jess & Kel know), and a Briggs gig that sent two country disco balls straight into a heavy metal mosh pit. Then comes the after-party story from the ECA conference. It involves a Magic Men show, a fainting episode, a bloke who looks like Channing Tatum, and footage that now lives on Instagram forever 

Once everyone stops crying with laughter, the conversation turns serious. The team talks about what being "all in" really looks like, why a Reconciliation Action Plan is far more than a tick-and-flick exercise, and how a CSIRO workshop on traditional sifting and winnowing can change your sensory tubs. 

They also discuss why Torres Strait Islander peoples deserve recognition, and how to bring conference learning back to your service before it fades. This is a proper behind-the-scenes episode. Expect to giggle and come away with plenty to think about.

Pull up a chair, because this one's a proper yarn about the Early Childhood Australia conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, where roughly 2,800 educators took over the venue.

It was the first time Koori Curriculum ran a booth together. Kelly clocked somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000 steps on day one. Setting up the booth took about seven hours, and they packed it down in 20 minutes flat so they could get a front-row seat for Thomas Mayo's keynote. Shan came out of what he lovingly calls the "deep, dark curriculum dungeon" to meet the people he usually only sees as names on a screen.  

Jess ran into a mum whose child she taught 18 years ago, which is the kind of thing that happens when you've been in this sector long enough to get a little bit famous and a little bit embarrassed about it. The booth was set up like a living room instead of a shop, full of programming examples, Shirley Pearl letters and well-loved scrapbooks from the travelling mascots. 

The team also had a visit from Play School's Kiya and Gemima, and Shan still isn't over it. Underneath all the laughter is a serious conversation about embedding Aboriginal perspectives in a way that fits your community, your children and the moment you're in. Copying someone else's beautiful wall display won't get you there.