Our Voices, Our Stories
Where the voices, journeys, and projects of the NPY Women’s Council come alive. Here we share perspectives from across our communities; the wins, challenges, and everyday moments that shape our collective story.
Stories
Growing Hope: The Blue Tree Project
Punu ngaanya mirritjanu warngkaringu – the dead tree comes to life again.
The Blue Tree project began as a conversation during a long car journey between Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and Warakurna, a remote community in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Western Australia. The discussion was sparked by the sight of a blue-painted tree at Curtin Springs, part of a national initiative to raise awareness of mental health – and this is what that particular Curtin Springs tree did.
A group of Anangu and Yarnangu women from the Uti Kulintjaku team at NPY Women’s Council developed the idea of making a blue tree out of tjanpi (grass), as a way of reinterpreting this initiative beyond the Western understanding of the tree, and of mental health more broadly, into a way that resonates with Anangu and Yarnangu. They collaborated with Tjanpi Desert Weavers to do this.
Not only was the physical act of making the tree healing, but it also stood as a powerful metaphor to open up dialogue about mental health in a meaningful and hopeful way.
The women talked about looking to the future – nyaakula kuranyukutu – going from a hopeless state – walykurringu – to having hope again, and recovering, returning to happiness – marlaku palyaringkupayi mapalyarringu.
The women often take the tree into Ngaanyatjarra Schools to engage the kids in discussions and meditations, encouraging them to create leaves to hang on the branches as symbols of regrowth. This interactive process shares the story of the blue tree in a way that reinforces the message of hope and healing.
The women hope the tree will travel, sparking many more conversations about mental health across communities, bridging cultural understandings, and bringing people together.
Learn more about the Uti Kulintjaku initiative and Ngangkari Traditional Healers here.
Aṉangu Men Walk Together to Pass on Knowledge
In early August, 50 Aṉangu men – Elders, cultural leaders, and young men and boys – came together from across 350,000 square kilometres for a three-day Watiku Tjina Ankunytja (Men’s Walk) across Central Australia.
Footsteps of Ancestors: A Walk to Nurture Culture and Wellbeing
Before colonisation, Anangu travelled tjina ankunytja (by foot) the path joining the important water sites of Kulpitjata, Wala, Tjapiya and Mutitjulu.
A 50km wati (men’s) walk from Kulpitjata to Mutitjulu was conducted with the goal of reconnecting younger men with their ancestral country, law and tjukurpa.
For NPYWC’s Uti Kulintjaku Watiku team and other men involved the walk was a positive step in nurturing the wellbeing of younger men. The ‘inseparability’ of place (Country) to Anangu wellbeing and social cohesion is well supported in public health literature.
The walk was first proposed by senior man Stanley Windy, who saw the walk as a way to reconnect the men with culture and nurture wellbeing.
Over 30 men from across the NPY lands participated, including senior men who led daily alpiri—traditional morning gatherings that set the agenda and tone for the day. Along the journey, they shared tjukurpa, taught important cultural protocols, and discussed wellbeing supported by NPYWC mental health resources made by Anangu men from the Uti Kulintjaku (clear thinking) Watiku program.
” my spirit and health have been lifted up”
David Miller
At the end of the walk, families and community leaders gathered to welcome the young men and celebrate their achievement. Community leaders Sammy Wilson, Rene Kulitja, and David Miller addressed the group, underscoring the significance of the walk.
For the young men, the walk reinforced their connection to place, culture and each other.
Recently, the Uti Kulintjaku Watiku Team rediscovered the Uwankara Palyanku Kanyintjaku (UPK) Nganampa Health film made in the 1990’s entitled “The Rope Story”.
Many of the tjilpi (old men) in the film were the fathers, grandfathers and uncles of current the Watiku Team members. In one section of the film, the men reflect on the disintegration of Anangu society that they are witnessing. They use a piece of rope to illustrate their point. The rope has three strands. These strands represent manta (land) kurunpa (spirit) and Anangu (people). The external influences of colonisation (including alcohol, drugs etc) have caused these strands to separate. The work needed now, the old men claimed, was for the three strands of the rope to be bound together again.
For the current members of Uti Kulintjaku Watiku Team, this walk brought manta (land) kurunpa (spirit) and Anangu (people) together.
This walk was supported by NPY Women’s Council, the Central Land Council (CLC), Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park staff, CASSE, Voyages and traditional owners
Celebrating the Work of Senior Pitjantjatjara Man David Miller
From stockman to supporting resistance against violence to women
David Miller has spent the last 8 years working to support resistance against violence to women and the mental health of young men and in remote communities through NPYWC’s Uti Kulintjaku (UKW) initiative. Last week David announced his retirement from the UKW initiative that he was a leader and founding member of.
Over his long and impressive life David has worked in many roles including stockman, educator, artist and community leader. David has also worked with NPYWC’s Uti Kulintjaku Watiku initiative on the award-winning book Tjanimaku Tjukurpa and was featured in Atunymanama, a book celebrating Anangu men as care-givers, teachers and leaders.
Here is an exert from Atunymanama from David:
Ka alatji nyanga paluru tjana nganampa nganananya tjamu tjutangku nintira wantikatingu Kutangku kutjupa tjutangku mukulyangku tjamungku uwankara nganana kanyintjaku nyanga paluru tjananya uwankara kuka kulu-kulu atunymankunytjaku malu palyantjaku uwankara. nganampa wantikatingu. Ka-la nyanga palulanguru nganana nintini yangupala nganampa tjuta malatja-malatja ka tjana ngapartji palumpa tjanampa tjitji ma nintini.
Tjukurpa nyanga palunya tjana ngananya-languru kulira? Ka kuwari mankur-mankur-pa nyinanyi ngaltutjara tjilpi. Palu tjukurpa kunyu nyuntu nganana ungkukati munu . . . Tjukurpa winki wiyaringkunytja wiyangku wantikati nganampa tjamu tjutangka malanypa tjutangka.
So, this is the way our grandfathers taught us. Many different people – older brothers, grandfathers – lovingly gave us this knowledge to keep. They taught us everything. How to look after the animals as well and how to prepare meat in the proper way. They left this knowledge behind for us. And it is from this knowledge that we are teaching the young fellas – all of our descendants – so that they, in turn, can teach their children.
Who are they going to get their understanding of this law from? Today there are only a handful of the older men living, sadly. But, of course, we keep on giving as we go along, to leave behind all of the law with our grandsons and younger brothers, so it will not be lost.
Thank you for your work David!
Listen to David read Tjanimaku Tjukurpa here
Kulintja - The Art of Deep Listening
Kulintja means listening, listening deeply. This is how NPYWC Chairwoman Margaret Smith and Tjulapi Carroll, members of the Uti Kulintjaku team at NPY Women’s Council explain it, speaking at the NT Writers Festival in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.
Now here are my family looking so proud in their photograph. It makes you feel good to see it … being happy in your own place in the world. That’s what it is. It’s a good thing.
“I always talk to my grandchildren, telling them interesting stories about hunting, about kangaroo. You think they haven’t paid attention when you’re talking about catching a goanna. But then, they go out on the dunes and actually do it themselves.
They’ll be bringing them home and I’ll look up: ‘Hey, my grandson Phillip’s coming back with a sand goanna, he got a goanna! They all go up the dune behind Mutitjulu and bring back goanna.
It always makes me feel great to see that… It gets shared with any family that might come around: ‘Here you go, this is for you.’
The family all gets together to enjoy eating it.
Sometimes they go out and get grubs, turning the roly-poly prickle plants upside down. Then they bring back the witchetty grubs they find in them. I can see they’re clearly good at getting things.
Now here are my family looking so proud in their photograph. It makes you feel good to see it … being happy in your own place in the world. That’s what it is. It’s a good thing.
It makes me happy to see them looking so good like this in the photograph. Really proud, you know.”
Mental health support & awareness needed outbush
How Anangu are leading vital mental health programs for young men
People living in the NPY Lands have very limited access to mental health support. The APY lands currently has one mental health nurse and the Ngaanyatjarra lands has a visiting mental health support every 6 weeks.
Senior Anangu talk about the lack and need of mental health support for young people in the NPY region. They recognize many factors resulting in the poor mental health of some young people in remote communities, this includes intergenerational trauma, poverty and lack of opportunities.
Ngangkari (traditional healers) have looked after people’s physical and emotional health for thousands of years. We support ngangkari to care for mental health within their communities, valuing both western and traditional mental health practices.
Uti Kulintjaku Watiku is just one of our mental health initiatives. Led by senior Anangu men for young men, it focuses on increasing mental health understanding and preventing family violence. Often struggling for funding, these vital programs are at risk.
Members of the Uti Kulintjaku Watiku team in SA
Improving mental health & preventing family violence
Uti Kulintjaku Watiku is a ground breaking men’s group consisting of senior Anangu men and young men from the NPY region who come together to prevent family violence and support young men’s wellbeing in remote communities.
The program is based on learning reciprocity between senior men and health professionals. Senior men then conduct workshops in community, act as role models and help to spread mental health messages at a grass root level.
The project applies the Uti Kulintjaku Iwara way of working that places culture first and strengthens intergenerational relationships.
Senior men talk about the lack of and need for mental health support for young people in the NPY region. They recognize many factors resulting in the poor mental health of some young people in remote communities, this includes intergenerational trauma, poverty and lack of opportunities.
The team members highlight the need for more support to facilitate intergenerational healing camps on the lands. These camps provide safe therapeutic spaces where young men can more effectively listen and learn without distraction and be immersed in Anangu culture, knowledge and practice.
As one of the senior Watiku member said: “Taking the young men out camping to get them out of community for a couple days… when they go camping, they get healed”.
Younger men have spoken about how being on Country with the senior men strengthens their spirit and helps them to manage their anxiety, depression and anger.
By taking those important steps and facilitating those healing camps, the Watiku team members have contributed to improving the wellbeing and mental health of many young men by increasing their sense of connection, role modelling positive behaviours and teaching cultural knowledge.
Anangu understandings give better support for women experiencing sexual assault
“Here is a Ngaanyatjarra woman who has gone through many things in her life, violence, assault and sexual assault. She has many problems. She is just sitting there and thinking, “Who can I trust? Who can I trust to help me? To encourage me? Where can I go for guidance and encouragement to put me on the right path? So I can have hope in my life.” And after that, “How can I get healed, my whole life and be strong? So in the end I can be happy, have a good husband, have kids and a happy life. Forget all those other things that have happened behind.” Anangu Co-Researcher. Read about the Domestic & Family Violence Service’s new paper and how trust, language and relationships can help to heal and inform DFV practice.
The NPYWC Domestic & Family Violence Service’s (DFVS) new research paper “Exploring Anangu understandings to strengthen support for Anangu women experiencing sexual assault” asked:
- What are Anangu understandings of sexual assault and its effects?
- How do you talk about sexual assault with Anangu women in a safe way?
- What support do Anangu women need if they have experienced sexual assault?
Anangu and non-Aboriginal DFVS staff, a psychotherapist and senior Anangu women from NPYWC’s Uti Kulintjaku (clear thinking) initiative worked together to answer these questions and find the best way forward to support Anangu women who have experienced sexual assault.
We are feeling empowered by this process to explain that we need to slow down and think about this work more carefully and talk about it in the right way and this has been informed by the knowledge of these senior Uti Kulintjaku ladies… The Uti Kulintjaku team work in a very slow, careful way to really look at words and ideas and Anangu knowledge… To say things in the right way, carefully. We know we can stop and slow down, we have the knowledge.” Anangu co-researcher
This is about the knowledge growing from when the minyma, Uti Kulintjaku team and the DV team first got together. We have started to do something and this is coming through, coming in to the DV team. We talked about secret language that came up at this workshop, strong Tjukurpa that has been hidden and was shared by the Uti Kulintjaku ladies. It’s like the pretty flowers, it made me really happy. Thank you, I’m really happy that you are here and sharing this Tjukurpa. Now it’s really big, it’s like the pretty flowers. Anangu co-researcher
Here are some of the ideas discussed in the report:
Language & Culture
The importance of language and knowledge of culture and community were seen as central in supporting women who have experienced sexual assault. The need to work sensitively in small communities where many people are related to ensure trust and maintain confidentiality. Anangu women described the way of speaking “sideways” or kiti-kiti wangkanyi as the appropriate Anangu way of talking about sensitive issues to ensure that further hurt, distress, shame or offence is not caused.
Trust & Relationships
Trust and finding the right person for an Anangu woman to talk about her experience of sexual assault is important –a woman that she already has a loving and caring relationship with like a mother, grandmother or sister is an important support.
In our communities, domestic and family violence causes a lot of sadness and distress. This work [is strengthening our idea that when piranpa come and go from communities, they don’t hold the knowledge and history for a long time in the way that Anangu do. They don’t know the families and the relationships and all the information about what is happening in communities. So it is really important that when workers come from outside they need to have a malpa – an Anangu worker working alongside them and to listen to them
We got together to talk Anangu and piranpa, and then going back to the communities and talking with the young women, it can help. It’s in the communities, it’s happening, going out there to talk to them. Making them feel happy and good inside by sharing that story. So they can feel like a rainbow, special. What I think is that the learning and sharing is starting and helping to start talking like with the girls and the senior women together. We are strong women doing the work and the circles in the drawing are growing as we are getting stronger, feeling stronger to take it back out to the young women, each time we come together.
Maimie Butler & Anawari Mitchell lead a special camp filled with culture & clear thinking
Maimie & Anawari drew on their work over the last 6 years with the Ngangkari program’s Uti Kulintjaku – Clear Thinking initiative to share their knowledge of emotional well-being with 28 women and girls at an important cultural site in WA.
For three nights, women and girls from Papulankutja, Irrunytju and Tjuntjuntjara camped out at Kuru Ala, a cultural site associated with the Seven Sisters story.
It was a chance to share stories, dances and songs about the site.
Maimie and Anawari spoke about books they had helped to create like Tjulpu and Walpa which tells the story of two young girls. Tjulpu is the bird that sings. Walpa is the blowing wind. The story explains how the care we give a child shapes their behaviour.
The group also practiced meditation and collected bush medicines.
The camp was an initiative between the NPYWC’s Ngangkari program’s Uti Kulintjaku team, NPYWC Youth Service and Ngaanyatjarra Council Land Management. It was supported by a Dream it Forward grant from Connect Groups WA.
For thousands of years Anangu families have sung to their babies. Integrating Western trauma theory with Anangu cultural knowledge, the Walytjapiti team worked with senior Anangu women to record a collection of children’s songs in Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. The collection aims to build and encourage connection between children and their caregivers.
Listen to the traditional song Urungka Tjarpara, a story about children getting cold from splashing around in the flowing water.
NPY Women’s Council Walytjapiti team work with families and children at risk. They deliver trauma informed therapeutic case management with families so that children remain safe, happy and protected within their communities.
Tjitjiku Inma is a collaboration between NPY Women’s Council’s Walytjapiti team and the Ngangkari’s Uti Kulintjaku (clear thinking) group who, together recorded 17 songs in Pitjantjatjara and 11 songs in Ngaanyatjarra.
The Titjiku Inma project was developed to support workers and families amplify the strength of singing to encourage the continuation of this interaction between caregivers and their children.
ANANGU LEADERS NURTURE COMMUNITIES DURING COVID-19
With most services into the NPY Lands greatly restricted, Anangu staff have found themselves playing a pivotal role in nurturing their communities on the ground.
The Uti Kulintjaku project is a part of the Ngangkari program and grows capacity and mental health literacy in Anangu communities. The project works with key Anangu community members and western health professionals to strengthen understanding between both groups, Anangu members then work within their communities to drive change.
When COVID-19 presented an extra need and fewer services, these leaders stepped up and began their own community initiatives. This is what happened.
Amata Men
Stanley Windy, a long term Uti Kulintjaku Watiku member, led several profound initiatives. The Uti Kulintjaku Watiku program positions Anangu men’s voice within the dialogue and sharing of ideas to prevent family violence and to strengthen young people’s wellbeing. Stanley found activities that would engage young men and used this time to talk intimately with the men. Stanley took young men out to catch and break in wild horses seen around Amata and set up music practice sessions. Stanley was able to talk to these young men through personal and empowering conversations. These conversations between leading community figures such as Stanley and young men are pivotal in creating grass roots community change.
Weekly Mental Health Meetings
A group of senior women and key members of Uti Kulintjaku based in Mutijulu began meeting weekly out bush, with support from the Central Land Council COVID-19 funding. The group is using this quiet time to consider their mental health and wellbeing and ways they can build resilience in their community.
Singing & family bush trips everywhere!
During COVID-19, all Uti Kulintjaku members reported increased singing and family trips to country as key well-being activities that have worked to build unity and alleviate distress.
Aboriginal men enter the conversation on domestic violence in remote communities.
Uti Kulintjaku Project Wins 2015 NT Administrator’s Medal For Excellence in Primary Health Care
For the past two years a team of Indigenous women and mental health professionals have been coming together to uncover words for talking about mental health in Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Yankunytjatjara. The group believe that creating a shared understanding of the language used to talk about feelings will improve mental health and emotional literacy, which will lead to increased help-seeking and better communication between Indigenous people and health workers.
At the 2013 Deadly Awards in Sydney on September 10, the NPY Women’s Council Ngangkari Program took out the Published Book of the Year award with their impressive publication Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari, published by Magabala Books.
NPY Women’s Council ngangkari Pantjiti McKenzie, Maringka Burton, Naomi Kantjuriny and Ilawanti Ken accepted the award at the ceremony in Sydney. Fortunately talented Namatjira actor Derek Lynch from Finke , was on hand to interpret Pantjiti McKenzie’s speech, the only speech of the night to be made in language.
NPY Women’s Council Ngangkari team are proud of their award and the success of their program. The book Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari published by Magabala Books has only been released for less than a year and already the first print run has sold out, with another reprint on the way.
The NPY Women’s Council Ngangkari have received many national and international awards for their work increasing understanding and collaboration with mainstream health services and the wider community, and in nurturing the physical, emotional and social well-being of their people.
