I was so proud that day!

Have we stopped domestic & family violence in remote communities? No. But we have made women much safer.

Kunbry Peipai (pictured) sat alongside staff and listened to women talking about domestic violence at early NPYWC meetings. The women were upset about police response to violence and the small jail sentences for offenders. Kunbry became a key founder and driver of the Domestic & Family Violence Service in the early years…

In 1993 several women went to a Domestic Violence Conference in Sydney, inspired and knowing they needed to do something in their own community. A a pilot program was first set up in Mutitjulu. The goal was to give women greater protection from violence…

Many senior women in Mutitjulu were very supportive of the new service. What they were doing at the time was controversial and challenging. They encountered a lot of resistance from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men.

At the time, police did not believe Anangu women wanted to face the court system. The new service offered women support and confidence through the system. The Service and the police also worked together to improving how the criminal justice system responded to Anangu women in the region.

The service importantly gave voice and awareness to conversations on domestic and family violence in remote communities.

The Domestic & Family Violence Service now works across the region, conducting casework, taking referrals, providing legal advice and education.

Women’s groups across the region gather together and share ideas about:

• how violence occurs in the community and how it is being challenged;
• the importance of culture to people in the community;
• about trauma and healing;
• about narrative approaches to working with communities’ own efforts to resist and challenge violence;
• ways to grow community resilience.

Find out more about the NPYWC Domestic & Family Violence Service

The words that still ring true for a youth service that emerged to fight to save young people from petrol sniffing

These petrol sniffers are our own flesh and blood, yet we have lost them all to petrol…They will live their lives in wheelchairs with acquired brain injuries. But for the new recruits, we are hoping that with Opal there will be no new recruits to petrol sniffing” Janet Inyika

Petrol sniffing brought a plague of brain injuries, violence and often death to remote NPY communities. Petrol sniffing destroyed families and devastated communities.

Almost from the beginning, NPYWC’s members sought help to combat this insidious and destructive habit, which seemed at the time beyond the control of families.

They became increasingly desperate to stop a practice killing and disabling their children and grandchildren. Government responses were sometimes piecemeal and short-term, seeking solutions from communities that they were incapable of providing.

NPYWC started a Youth Service in Kaltjiti (Fregon), APY lands in 1999 as a response to the petrol sniffing crisis. Members and Directors of NPY Women’s Council stood beside the service and fought tirelessly to have this epidemic dealt with. Leading the fight was NPYWC member Janet Inyika also known as Miss Never Give Up.

_{Janet Inyika– a fierce opponent of petrol sniffing}

NPYWC, alongside CAYLUS and Voyages Resort (Yulara) formed the Opal Alliance in 2005. This lobbying body worked urgently to advocate for the roll out of Opal fuel, a low aromatic substitute with no intoxicating effect.

By the end of 2005 Opal fuel was rolled out in Yulara, some nearby communities and roadhouses (a few of whom were reluctant to take it up). By 2006, the Opal Alliance had lobbied Minister Abbott who agreed to subsidise the roll out of Opal into Alice Springs. By 2009, 120 communities and commercial outlets right across the NPY lands, from Kalgoorlie to Alice Springs had swapped to Opal fuel.

Find out more about the Youth Service