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The Ngurra Rapa, Tjukurrpa Rapa (Strong Homes, Strong Stories) Community Plans are live
It’s with great excitement that we share with you the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Community Plans, Ngurra Rapa, Tjukurrpa Rapa – Strong Homes, Strong Stories.
These Plans represent the ideas of Yarnangu from across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. They were developed in late October when the team from Creating Communities visited the Lands to listen and learn our communities’ aspirations for the future.
We made these Plans because we know that Yarnangu are strong. Yarnangu get their strength from Ngurra and Tjukurrpa, the stories and language passed down by ancestors, guided by thousands of years of continued culture on the Lands.
Since first contact, Yarnangu have sought to understand and navigate many changing systems and processes that haven’t worked in remote communities. This has made life hard.
These Community Plans for Warakurna, Wanarn, Blackstone, Jameson and Warburton, aim to provide direction from the community to create lasting positive change. The team also plan to visit the remaining Ngaanyatjarra Lands communities to work on developing Ngurra Rapa, Tjukurrpa Rapa – Strong Homes, Strong Stories Plans with their community members.
This change relies on embracing new ways, while at the same time maintaining strong connections with Tjukurrpa, Country, language and family.
We invite you all to review these plans, to share them with your family, to talk about them. We also invite you to give us feedback, tell us what you think will and won’t work.
The team from Creating Communities will be back in the Lands at the start of 2024 and they’re looking forward to hearing your feedback.
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Strong homes and strong stories are at the heart of the aspirations of the members of communities on Ngaanyatjarra lands. The last six months have seen a steady stream of engagements and action within these communities as they have co-designed and collaborated on Community Plans to help their communities flourish. These plans have been developed by the communities, for the communities, and for delivery by the community alongside key stakeholders. Importantly, these Community Plans have now been accepted, giving a green light to opportunities, strategies, and activities that can better resource remote communities and provide greater access to services, which we understand need to be improved in many ways. The recent activation programs over the school holidays represented another key outcome of our Community Plans—creating spaces and places for our young people to engage and flourish on country. These programs involved many of our communities, with major hubs at Warburton, Warakurna, and Warnarn. Our Plans reflect our aspirations for Ngurra Rapa, Tjukurrpa Rapa (Strong homes, Strong stories) to fulfil our collective vision of purpose and agency —communities where members are encouraged and supported to thrive. “Our Community Plans provide community-informed guidance to the ongoing activities and investment into the community for members, businesses and government,” said Ngaanyatjarra Council CEP Thomas Williams. There are plenty of opportunities for members of Ngaanyatjarra communities to be engaged in these plans, and we believe there will be significant employment opportunities in some of our communities. “Our vision is to support the Ngaanyatjarra people to live healthy, fulfilled lives on the lands - places of flourishing where the aspirations of Yarnangu are realised as we work together towards strong families, strong stories, and strong futures on the lands,” Thomas said. The intersecting impacts of remoteness, ineffective social support, insufficient social services, and the high cost of living have made our people some of the most disadvantaged in the nation. “One of the major sources of disadvantage has been the changing face of CDP and ‘work for the dole’ policies, which have been punitive and negatively impacted communities,” Thomas said. “Seeing these community plans not only accepted but moving to implementation is a significant milestone in identifying the potential, opportunities and the resourcing of each of our Ngaanyatjarra communities,” Thomas said. “It’s an exciting phase that we now enter as we’re seeing these community aspirations begin to shape and transform communities as stakeholders and government join us in building vibrant spaces on the lands and addressing head-on the genuine challenges and disadvantages that face our people in these remote communities,” Thomas said. The Community Plans will continue to fuel opportunities as each element is activated and the future of living on the lands becomes brighter for many.
Addis joins Ngaanyatjarra leadership team reflecting desire to help yarnangu stay strong on country.
As Ngaanyatjarra Council continues to lay strong operational foundations for yarnangu (aboriginals of the Western Desert) to remain strong on country, it has made the vital appointment of Ralph Addis as Executive Director of Operations. Ralph joins the Council with a legacy of experience in the government sector and with traditional owners across Western Australia. Ralph spent twenty years in the East Kimberley, including as founding CEO of Wunan Foundation, an aboriginal development organisation in the East Kimberly region of Western Australia. The diverse dimensions of the Foundation included education reform, housing reform, employment, and economic development. He was driven by a desire to give aboriginal people in the region increasing economic independence and sustainability through a community-led approach. After 12 years with the Foundation, Addis spent two years as the community CEO of Warmun | Turkey Creek, working with the government and NGOs to rebuild the community after it was devastated by floods in 2011. Over the last two decades, Addis was Chair of the Kimberley Development Commission, Director General of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA, and CEO of Lotterywest and Healthway. Ralph’s breadth of oversight and governance experience, combined with a desire to realise Yarnangu's aspirations to stay strong on the lands makes him a strategic fit for the Council’s leadership team. ‘The calibre of the people I worked with in the Kimberleys was outstanding, including my wife, who I met while in Kununurra—in many ways, it’s still home to me,’ Addis said. After a string of rewarding roles in government, Addis’s commitment to indigenous development remained strong. Ultimately, it would draw him back into contexts where he could effect change. ‘I believe the broader commitment and priority of the state to indigenous development remains underdone,’ ‘The lack of priority given by policy-makers was a trigger for understanding that I could be of more value as a catalyst for change from outside of the political system rather than within it,’ ‘The opportunity to work with Ngaanyatjarra Council emerged after some consulting work with the Council,’ Addis said. ‘I can see the trajectory of change and the imperative for change in the Council, and it excites me to be part of helping Yarnangu stay strong on country,’ he added. Appointments like Ralph Addis are significant to assembling a management team that can implement genuine, long-term change for those who desire to lead flourishing lives on Ngaanyatjarra lands.
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