Creating Communities Australia is pleased to confirm its engagement by the Ngaanyatjarra Land Council to walk alongside them in realising the collective vision of Yarnangu living lives of purpose and agency though Ngurra Rama, Tjukurrpa Rapa (Strong Homes, Strong Stories).
The Ngaanyatjarra People are the Traditional Owners of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. The lands are home to 1,800 Yarnangu (Ngaanyatjarra People) who live in 11 communities over an area spanning 160,000 sq/kms in the far east of Western Australia abutting the Northern Territory and South Australian borders.
The Ngaanyatjarra Lands are managed by the Ngaanyatjarra Council Group, a wholly community-led entity that represents the interests of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara Traditional Owners (Yarnangu) who reside in the communities of Warburton, Irrunytju (Wingellina), Papulankutja (Blackstone), Mantamaru (Jameson), Warakurna, Tjirrkarli, Tjukurla, Wanarn, Kiwirrkurra, Patjarr and Pira Kata (Kanpa). Each of the Ngaanyatjarra Communities is an autonomous, separately incorporated body.
Creating Communities has been actively engaging with the eleven communities on Ngaanyatjarra Lands to co-create unique community plans for each of these communities. These plans seek to identify economic, social and cultural opportunities that affirm their aspiration to lead flourishing lives on country and maintain the 40,000 year connection with land that is core to their identity.
Life now in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands is very difficult. The people who live there experience some of the most extreme poverty in Australia. The system currently in place is one that assumes a reasonable foundation and network of supports that might be recognised in colonised Australia, but are not part of the fabric of Aboriginal communities.
