Yarri Wada is a Ngarinyin
phrase meaning ‘many dreamings’.
Senior Law women of the
Ngarinyin, Wunambal and Worora clans have one thing in common - a deep
love of their country and the people within it.
They dream of :
-
finding ways
to guide their communities out of the cycle of poverty, domestic violence,
child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, disease, youth suicide, poor education
and unemployment
-
communities regaining pride in their culture and respect for themselves and
each other
-
their children enjoying good health, good education and a safe living
environment.
Together, these women
decided that they could use puppets to best apply their strengths in art and
story telling, to help men and women make positive changes in their
communities...all they needed to get started, was a little help from their
friends
The women approached their friends from the Zonta Club of Perth, with their
idea - and the Yarri Wada Puppet Project was born and has developed in three
stages as:
Yarri Wada Puppet Project
In stage 1 of the project, Zontians successfully
sought partnership with the EON Foundation, the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre,
the Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA) - the world puppetry
body, Million Puppets Project, St Catherine’s College (University of Western
Australia) and several private individuals. The first stage saw 50
women trained by professional puppeteers in puppet design, with 19 receiving
formal TAFE qualifications in the process.
A DVD video of the puppet construction was made and sent to potential donors
in a Yarri Wada Presentation Pack that also contained the first edition of
the Yarri Wada News and donation forms. The project was presented at
the District 23 Conference in Hobart, Tasmania in 2007 and adopted as a
District 23 project for the 2008-2010 biennium.
A few puppeteers brought two 'Gwion Gwion' puppets, 4.5m and 3m high, from
the Kimberley to Perth and exhibited them at the World Puppet Festival in
April 2008. This was a fantastic opportunities for our fledgling
puppeteers to mix it with the best in the world and the puppets stirred a
lot of interest - especially given their size and cultural uniqueness.
Monorngungga
- Stepping Forward with Pride
Back in the Kimberley, it soon became clear that the local leaders of the
project needed to have the skills and knowledge to train future puppeteers
to deliver the important messages relating to health, culture and life
skills.
Therefore Stage 2 of the project saw the development of Monorngungga
- Stepping Forward with Pride a project to teach sexual health and
wellbeing to young people aged 10-16. Program leaders are Beryl Davis,
Aboriginal Liaison Officer from Derby Health Service, Estelle Umbagai from
Mowunjum Community and Angela Fisher a Child Health Nurse from the Kimberley
Public Health Unit. The leaders firstly undertook specialist training
in sexual health and positive life skills so they could learn to get young
people to talk about puberty, body image and sexual issues in a group
environment. The first training course for young women was completed with tremendous results, including more young men arranging
'check ups' with the local nurses. Similar
courses have been developed for young men.
The project has been the catalyst for local agencies to work together and,
thanks to a little help from their Zontian friends, the Kimberley
communities got on track to continue this work themselves. Funding
from Zonta Clubs in District 23 helped to 'kick start' this phase of the
project as it was adopted as an official D23 project for the 2008-2010
biennium.
A huge thank you goes to
all the Zonta Clubs in District 23 that supported the Yarri Wada Project.
The funds raised were matched by the Unity of First People of Australia and
a Project Manager was employed to see the continuation of the education
programs commenced as part of the Yarri Wada Puppet Project.
The experience gained from Yarri Wada demonstrated that there was a need for
programs to educate young people in life skills, provide cultural pride and
build their esteem so they were empowered to make positive choices in life.
Therefore, partners in the project set about seeking more funding to see the
program become established in the community.
Ilerla Project
Meanwhile Yarri Wada
Project Coordinators Fiona Crowe and Sciona Browne, applied for funding to
continue the programs and have been waiting to hear if they have been
successful... It is now official – Lotterywest has granted $230,307 to
ensure the work continues for two more years.
The project will move
forward under the name
‘ILERLA’
- meaning ‘young youth’. It targets young people in the remote Kimberley
region of Western Australia who live in environments where there are high
levels of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and violence.
Ilerla
will be administered by the Unity of First People of Australia and the Zonta
Club of Perth will continue to be involved through representation on the
Community Reference Group to whom the Project Manager reports. In addition,
the club will also assist with seeking funding to sustain the program beyond
the next two years.
Ilerla
brings together community elders and a host of local organizations and
government agencies such as True Blue Dreaming, Rainbow Program, WA Police,
WA Health Department, Curtin University, University of South Australia,
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Aboriginal Healthwork, Mooditj,
Standby Me, Nunga Women’s Workshops, St John Ambulance and many more!
Mowunjum resident,
Leah Umbagai, will coordinate a range of programs aimed at children, youth,
young adults, young parents, mothers, fathers and grandparents. The
Ilerla Project is based at Mowunjum (10km south of
Derby) but will also include communities on the Gibb River Road up to 500km
away.
With talks by
indigenous role models, professional assistance to deal with emotional and
physical trauma and after school activities such as art workshops, drop in
centre for homework, puppet theatre activities, in-country camps,
traditional dance afternoons and a ‘kids club’ that incorporates a
sleep-over from Friday night for those children who are unsafe at home on
weekends, children will have opportunities to broaden their thinking and be
empowered to make good decisions for the future. Additional programs
designed to help youth navigate puberty more safely include high school sex
education programs, as so many of the 15-18 year olds are at high risk of
unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and breakdown in mental
health. The Kimberley Land Council will also take boys and girls on a bush
training program to show them how to monitor the environment and animals and
manage the country using traditional techniques such as controlled burning.
The whole community
will be touched by Ilerla. For more information on this
fantastic good news story, please see the last Yarri Wada News that has been
distributed to all clubs and that may be downloaded
here.
The magical thing about Yarri Wada is that has inspired local leaders to
take ownership of the project and develop the project in the way that works
best in their communities.
