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.

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.

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 has seen 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 has recently been completed with tremendous results, including more young men arranging 'check ups' with the local nurses.  It is hoped to develop a similar course for young men in the future.

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 are now on track to continue this work themselves.  Funding from Zonta Clubs in District 23 has helped to 'kick start' this phase of the project and with a little more help over the next year the team is confident that the project will become self sustainable in the long term. 

The magical thing about Yarri Wada is that it is inspiring local leaders to take ownership of the project and develop the project in the way that works best in their communities.