Yarri Wada is a Ngarinyin phrase meaning ‘many dreamings’.

Senior Law women of the Ngarinyin, Wunambal and Worrorra clans have one thing in common - a deep love of their country and the people within it. They dream of finding a way 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.

They dream of communities regaining pride in their culture and respect for themselves and each other. They dream of 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.

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 to realise the first stage of this unique project.

The Senior Law women want to support young women and men within their communities to:

• Take on leadership roles to reduce violence against women and children

• Encourage young people to pursue an education

• Enable young and old to teach each other how to reduce disease and poor health in their communities

• Encourage women and men to say ‘no’ to violence and encourage healthy relationships

• Provide women and men with an additional means to preserve Law and culture and make it relevant to modern living

• Build self esteem and confidence through creative design and performance.

The programs in Yarri Wada are developed by Indigenous people for Indigenous people and therefore are able to speak in a way that is culturally meaningful.

At the District 23 conference held in Hobart in 2007, Zontians voted to extend the project to the wider Zonta community by adopting the project as a District 23 project for the 2008 to 2010 biennium that commenced in July 2008. The project will continue to be co-ordinated through the Zonta Club of Perth Inc.