Local Knowledge Creating Lasting Change: Anangu Staff Driving Stronger Outcomes For children and Families Out Bush

The Yuu Group is a special project led by four Anangu women who have been working together for years, creating innovative ways to use the strength of Anangu culture to resist domestic and family violence. Below is a collaborative tjanpi artwork they created which tells the story of how Anangu lived in the past, when the women were children, with families sleeping in a windbreak – a yuu. The scene illustrates that, without a yuu, a fi re can grow out of control. The work that the Yuu Group does calls community to act like a windbreak, to keep the fire under control and protect families.

“We created a scene from traditional times, the times when people had strong protection in the form of windbreak. These two people are strong and looking after their children really well and they have the right size fire. These two in the past, they lived without violence. With that small fi re they lived well and they looked after their children well. Now-days we are all surrounded by violence. The fire has become huge. When the fi re burns too high, the protective windbreak is burnt. That is what violence is. This is what we made to express our thinking and feeling about this. If you have the right size small fi re, that’s the right way to live when you are looking after all the members of the family and it is a good life. That small, low burning fi re is the right help that young people need. So, if you have the right thinking, strong, good thinking, you understand things and you keep that fi re the right small size then there will be no violence and you’ll live together looking after those children and all the other extended family members.”
- Yuu Group member

Funding support was provided by the Department of Human Services, the Department of Social Services, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

When South Australia announced a Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, NPYWC knew we had to work hard to make sure the voices of Anangu women and men were heard in this enquiry. As the only specialist domestic and family violence service operating across the tri-state NPY region, we are uniquely placed to platform Anangu voices.

As a result of our advocacy and two written submissions, Commissioner Natasha Stott-Despoja decided to fly to Mparntwe specifically to meet with NPYWC directors and members, and the men of the primary prevention Uti Kulintjaku Watiku project.

The Watiku men shared stories about the work they do in their own communities to help young men grow up strong and care for their families.

The directors and members talked about the unique challenges facing Anangu women who are responding to and resisting domestic and family violence on the APY lands. This includes:

• Difficulties created by the three different administrative systems across the tri-state region in which Anangu live and travel - the borders have a big impact on the justice system but to Anangu those borders do not exist
• Challenges created by remoteness, with no safe houses for women or men on the lands and police sometimes many hundreds of kilometres away
• The need for support for men who use violence, and for young parents to help them break the cycle of violence

NPYWC also spoke powerfully about how they draw on the strengths of Anangu culture to resist and heal from domestic and family violence. Our members shared stories of how traditional ways of living kept families safe, and how taking young people out on country to reconnect with language, culture and kin can build strong families for the future.

One of our directors emphasised that any solution to domestic violence needs to be grounded in Anangu tjukurpa.

The Commissioner was visibly moved by NPYWC’s testimony. The final report of the Royal Commission quoted NPYWC multiple times and made several recommendations specific to the APY lands, such as supported accommodation for both men and women and increased investment in programs for men. NPYWC calls on the South Australian government to act on these recommendations and work with us to increase the safety of Anangu women and children.