Language, Culture and Well-being — Application in Warlpiri controlled community projects
Presentation by Enid Gallagher, Cultural Mentor — Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC), and Samantha Disbray — Australian National University, to First Languages Australia’s Wellbeing gathering, August 2017.
The Warlpiri Youth Aboriginal Development Corporation (WYDAC) has been operating for over 20 years. It started small, just as way to get young people who were risk away from the community and out on country with elders, to stop the problem of petrol sniffing at Yuendumu, and at other Warlpiri communities.
In the 1990’s petrol sniffing came up as a big problem in remote communities in Central Australia. A small group of families took young people out to their outstation, Mt. Theo. Mt Theo is still an important centre for rehabilitation and diversion, for young people with substance addiction and youth offenders. But over years Warlpiri have expanded the Mt Theo programs and developed a whole set of youth development activities in all four communities (see image below).
At the top is the shield or kurdiji. It has all the programs to protect our young people. It has the Youth programs and Youth development programs.
At the bottom is a coolamon, a paraja that holds young people when they need help and support, so it has Mt Theo Outstation rehabilitation and diversion, Warra-Warra Kanyi Counselling and Outreach programs.
On the rights is the third part, life pathways, to support for the transition to training and work.
You can see that WYDAC run a lot of different youth development activities, things like ‘Culture, Sport, Art and Music’. These are after school, weekend and school holiday programs. We do activities that help young people to learn more language and culture and keep their language and culture strong. Young people go on day trips on the weekends out bush with some elders and youth workers. Elders go and tell the young people stories about the certain place. WYDAC have buses and troop carriers to take people out bush on day trips and camps. Elders always are there.
They go out hunting for different bush food at different times of the year and the elders are teaching young people the cultural ways of how our people used to live in the old days. Traditional food makes us strong and healthy.
When young people sit down with their elders, and the elders are telling them stories about their grandfather’s/ father’s traditional country and dreaming. This traditional knowledge is still important for young people — for work with the Warlpiri rangers, who do land management and also for land tenure.
Warlpiri have Land Rights over their land, Indigenous Protected Area Agreements, mining and other matters have to be managed. Young people need to know about their country and law. The way people live in modern life makes it hard for young people and old people to sit together and learn every day in the community. But this program makes time and makes resources available so that this important learning can happen. It helps young people to maintain strong language and culture. Plus, there is also the youth media program. Young people do projects with PAW media, like making music and videos.
Then there is the Youth Development program, Jaru Pijirdi. This is mentoring and training for interested young people, so that they can become youth workers and leaders in WYDAC. This part also has training and other life skills activities.
In the paraja (client services), there is Warra-Warra Kanyi. Jangala Cedric Egan is the cultural worker for the man’s side. He takes the young men out bush on Wednesdays to talk to them about well-being and culture, strong father’s and families.
Geraldine Napurrurla Dixon takes the young girls out bush on Wednesdays to talk to them about well-being, culture and strong families.
There is also outreach counselling by psychologist, who works closely with the two cultural workers. The Yapa workers do follow up with the young people in crisis, with relationship and mental health issues.
We also have ‘Girls night in’ each month, every age can come, grandmothers, mothers, young girls, little girls can come. We do beauty therapy, massage, cooking together, play music and dancing and it’s a time for girls to enjoy.
WYDAC also has projects like the Kurduku Palangu project for young women and young mothers. You can view the final product that WYDAC and the young people created on you tube.
Southern Ngalia Dance Camps
There are other ways that WYDAC helps young people to learn Warlpiri Language and Culture. We take girls on the Southern Ngaliya Dance camp, this is a four-day camp on country. We have elders, women and girls from Yuendumu, Nyirrpi and Willowra all joining in. We also have non-Indigenous ladies coming out on these camps. We are out bush that’s where the learning and teaching starts. It’s the elders who are our mentors and teachers. We get the girls to go in 4 groups, the girls know their skin names. They also know all the ladies skin names. They know which ladies have the same skin names and dreamings. We are partnered with Incite Youth Arts on this project, and non-Indigenous ladies from Incite come with us on the dance camps. When we are out bush, the young girls are learning both ways. The girls do traditional dancing, learn stories, dreamings, designs for different countries and who belongs to that country. Non-Indigenous ladies from Incite teach them modern dancing like hip hop, and also yoga and stretching exercises. This is all separate from the school. It takes place in school holidays.
Community Learning Centres and the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust
WYDAC gets funding from the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT), through its Youth and Media program. WETT is a Warlpiri controlled trust, with income from mining from Newmont Mine. It has set up 5 different program areas (see Image below). Over the last 10 years, it has invested $22 million of Warlpiri money in Warlpiri designed and controlled programs. All of the programs are designed to make strong young Warlpiri people, strong in their language, their culture and themselves.
Early Childhood programs
An important program is community adult learning centres, as it gives young people and adults a second chance at learning. In Yuendumu, WYDAC runs the Learning centre, and the Learning Centre works closely with WYDAC youth programs and adults. Young people at the Learning centre learn both ways, Warlpiri and English. There are Yapa (Warlpiri) workers and they get training on the job. The young people come and they learn from Yapa there, the Yapa workers are role models.
The Learning Centre under WYDAC works closely with the senior classes in the school. They do good projects, learning projects that are good for young people and well-being, like the Cyberbullying project. We come up with words and made posters like little -i-pads to give good messages about using social media like facebook.
The Strategic Review for the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust
After 10 years of strong program development and delivery, and good income forecasts for the next ten years, WETT commissioned a Strategic Review of its programs in 2016. The Strategic Review involved interviews with members of the WETT Advisory committee and the Kurra Royalties Association, program staff and community members; in total 129 Warlpiri adults. The following graphic shows the most frequently raised issues and aspirations Warlpiri people in the interviews. Overall these themes form a critical nexus, in which Warlpiri culture and family are the core mediators and drivers of learning, training, employment and life pathways for Warlpiri people. The Review will be publicly available through the Central Land Council website soon.
Enid Nangala Gallagher is from Yuendumu community, which is 270 km from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. Enid works at Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC) as a cultural mentor for the youth workers. She is also an executive member of the WYDAC board.
Samantha Disbray is a linguist based in Alice Springs and has worked closely with the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT) for the last 10 years. In 2016–2017 she undertook a Strategic Review with WETT, and colleagueJohn Guenther.
