Starting 27 August, for six months, Voices from the Heart of the Nation will provide readers of The Australian and reconcile.org.au with a unique insight into the hopes and concerns of people from Yuendumu. Interviewed on tape by staff from their own, local media organisation Warlpiri Media, a panel of people from the community will talk directly about important issues in their community.
Yuendumu is a small, predominantly Warlpiri Aboriginal community of with a fluctuating population of between 800 to 1000 people 290km North West of Alice Springs.
Almost since first contact when officials began discussing their future and welfare, where they could live and how they could be managed, the lives of Warlpiri people of Yuendumu have been shaped by the decisions of bureaucrats in cities far away.
Yuendumu was established as government ration depot in 1946 and the Baptist mission invited to set up a ministry there. In 1952 an Aboriginal reserve of 200 square km was proclaimed which became Aboriginal land in 1977, after the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.
Pastoral and mining encroachment on their traditional country, a devastating drought along with the fear created by the Coniston massacre in 1928 meant that many Walpiri moved on to cattle stations and away from their lands in the southern half of the Tanami desert seeking protection. When a bore was put down at Rock Hill (Waklupa) on a new stock route from Mt Doreen Station to Alice Springs and the border between Warlpiri and Anmatjirra country, dependants of Warlpiri people working on cattle stations and people from a ration depot near the Stuart Highway were moved there. A store, school, clinic and a kitchen for communal meals were quickly established. The daily life of people in Yuendumu was structured around school and a policy of no work no rations, and the community functioned as an institution with control in the hands of a superintendent. Warlpiri had very limited access to money until direct and full payment of social security entitlements came into effect in 1969 and the communal kitchen was closed. In 1978 the first elected Yuendumu Council assumed responsibility for the administration of Yuendumu.
Today, the community council (reliant on government funding) remains in control of the essential services of housing, power and water. Other key services such as the health clinic, school, police and welfare payments are controlled by government. Community organisations and services include the renowned Mt Theo Youth and substance misuse program, a men’s and women’s Night Patrol, Warlpiri Media, a women’s centre and a successful art centre, Warlukurlangu Artists.
Warlpiri is the main language of Yuendumu with culture, hunting and ceremonies still playing an important role. Sport is a passion in many central Australian communities and Yuendumu is no exception, home to the revered Yuendumu Magpies. Substance abuse, welfare dependency and its attendant problems, unemployment, violence and poor school attendance are all real and present issues in Yuendumu. The people who live there know and care about these issues, and many are keen to address them.
Since the announcement in June 2007 of the Northern Territory Emergency Response by Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and the Prime Minister, the people of Yuendumu have been anxious for information about how their lives will be affected this time.